My sister, the Ham.

I made this dress for someone else, but it didn't fit her. Boo me. But Yay for Anna, my sister, who fit in it precisely. She got a free dress last night during our Oscar's party, hence the faces of pure delight. Did you think Anne Hathaway was a big ham last night as she hosted the Oscars? Well, you haven't met Anna. 

Have I been here before?

I found this really great video about hand beading from a costume shop in New York that made the costumes for Wicked, and I actually think I visited and toured this costume shop when I went to New York with my sewing class.... but I can't remember exactly. It LOOKS like the shop. The tables and windows look familiar. And I'm pretty sure they said in the tour that they did the costumes for Wicked when I was there. I also used their bathroom, which was really nice. I also had eyelids the size of strawberries due to a severe sinus infection that whole week. But discussing the Wicked costumes is what I really remember.

Bear with me

My sewing machine is currently being used as a bouquet holder as I work on Poor Man's Wife orders. Hello money in my savings account!

Fabric bouquets are better than fresh flower bouquets because they never die. A forever keepsake!

I may have gone bird crazy, but the bride LOVES the idea of birds in her bouquet. So there.

Put a Bird on It!

Business first, fun after. 

I dropped off Whitney's finished yellow skirt today and it just looks great on her! She was so excited to have a nice skirt to wear to weddings, out to dinner, and to church that fit her right! Yay for handmade clothing that is worth every penny. And the contrasting lining is just precious. She is having me make a second one out of stretch denim for more casual outings as well. Remember the shirt I made her? Now she has an entire Ellen Outfit!

My skirts cost $100 including all materials, no matter the style.

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Now for fun. The other day I felt so white trash for having my Christmas wreath still up, that I decided to make another one, finally. I went to Joanne's and bought a twig wreath for $4 and little birds and bird's nests to make my wreath springy. As you know, I have a thing for birds. I actually think I am obsessed. My sister an I will buy anything if it has a bird on it, especially for our home decor. 

THAT SAME DAY, on Conan, Fred Armisen was on talking about his show Portlandia which makes fun of the Granola's and trend-setters in Portland, I guess. THIS IS THE CLIP THEY DECIDED TO SHOW, and my husband and I couldn't breathe from our simultaneous laughter:

My new journey begins.

Yesterday I started on my first non-PD dress with my new adventurous sewing spirit! I am using the base pattern of the PD to work with this knit dress, but I am modifying it a lot so it doesn't look like it came out of the Gap. I'm sewing my first wrap-around top and petal skirt! The top is a little low, so I may be scrapping the whole thing and cutting a newer modest one. I tried adding scallops to the neckline to make it higher, but it just looks dumb and "home made" (a home sewer's worst night mare). Tomorrow I'll hopefully have pictures of me actually wearing the dress. I'm SO excited for the skirt, because in the front opening that the two petals make, will be some great floral print chiffon that will peek out the hem of the skirt. I've never done anything like this, and I like it so far! Yay for adventurous spirit!

The skirt laid out. I added some deep diagonal pleats at the waist. The back of the skirt will just be flat so my ba-donka-donka doesn't look any more "ba-donk".

The scallops have to go!

Stagnant

I feel like my life has been stagnant for three years-- since Steve and I got married. Sure I graduated college, and we got Bridgette, but nothing has really happened to us for three years that has required a lot of change. It was nice to live this way for so long, with no real responsibilities besides paying the rent and saving money every paycheck. We've lived for ourselves and we really enjoyed it. All of the sudden on Sunday we realized we couldn't live this way anymore. We were once care-free birds, but a moment later we were planning Graduate School for Steve, buying a new car, perhaps having children in the next year. In 24 hours our lives changed completely, and I realized last night as the Bachelor was muted on TV and I was sketching, that I could no longer keep making PDs every week. PDs are stagnant, and it's true when they say our lives are reflected in our art. I was getting lazy. I enjoyed not having to make a new pattern for a new outfit all the time, but that won't help me grow up at all. If I ever want to be on Project Runway, or own my own clothing line, I have to step up and take chances, learn from my mistakes. As Steve and I join the growing up process again, so will my art. And it will all be displayed here, in my digital escape from the day to day. 

Things I want to try:

Making a coat/jacket pattern.


Experimenting more with knits and lighter weight fabrics. 


Making tops like I used to!


3 dimensional designs. 


A suit.


Was there a time where you realized you could no longer be stagnant in art, work, or everyday life?

Another day, another stupid zipper.

I finished Whitney's skirt this morning without a hitch. It looks awesome. Pics will come when I deliver it. 

After that, I started working on replacing the zipper on my latest PD after three messed up zippers were in. This one, the FOURTH ZIPPER, also failed. A zipper fail is so frustrating. 

I did everything for this zipper that I explained yesterday with me new-found techniques. They are great, but I still couldn't zip it up at my waist. I thought that maybe the threads that I basted it with were overlapping into the zipper teeth, making it not zip up. It was hard to unpick because I couldn't see anything (black thread on black fabric is always impossible to see) and I think I messed up the teeth, and when I tried to zip up, the zipper head just came off. GREAT. Another $3 will be spent on yet ANOTHER zipper. blah blah blah. story of my life. 

Pictured is how I followed the technique I explained yesterday. The waist seam line was already serged together, so I clipped the seam allowance about 1" to the zipper, and spread it open so that the seam wouldn't be too bulk. Clipping the seam allowance isn't advisable, but it's all I could do without taking out all the serging I had already done. I hope my dreams come true and this dress is worn someday. That'll be the day...

The thing with zippers...

I finished Whitney's skirt zipper yesterday, and I'm so excited to tell you that I learned a technique doing invisible zippers over a seam line (which I have had trouble before).

 

The picture above is the inside view of an invisible zipper already sewn in. The first thing I did was sew up one side the invisible zipper, keeping the seam allowances OPEN where the zipper hits. This will make it less bulky and easier to zip up when on (and i think this may be the problem I had before-- I was sewing the zipper in with the seam allowances together, facing down. Not good). Now, a lot of you may know, if you have sewn in an IZ (invisible zipper) before, is that it is a beast trying to get the seam lines to match perfectly on the outside of the garment, and I had to unpick this bugger three times until I figured out what to do! When you sew up the second side of the zipper, put a pencil mark on the tape where the seam line should be (as shown), and then baste the zipper on ONLY WHERE the seam line hits, about 1 1/2 inch. Then zip the zipper and see if your seam lines match! it is so simple! This way you don't have to unpick the entire zipper over and over until you get it right, and it is so much easier to sew the entire zipper in after that because it is already basted where it needs to hit. HALLELUJAH! Just pinning the zipper in place doesn't do much, because the zipper will shift when sewing. Basting is where I want to be! It will save your hair from turning prematurely gray!

See here: a perfect IZ with seam lines matching.

Another How-to from Ellen Switzer. Happy Tuesday!

I'm working on Whitney's skirt today, and I think I'm going to have it done be tomorrow! I decided to put in a hem facing on the skirt hem, instead of just folding the edge up and sewing a blind stitch. I think hem facings are far more professional and actually easier to do. Here is how I did it:


Step One

Trace the bottom of your skirt pattern, making a facing, measuring up the sides of the skirt 2 1/4" to 2 5/8". Make sure you have a seam allowance on the bottom of the pattern, so you have enough to sew the facing to the skirt. Cut out the facing piece following grain of skirt pattern. Serge the edge of the facing that isn't sewn to the skirt-- the edge that you will see inside the skirt.



You are doing great! Step two:
Sew the front and back pieces of the skirt facing together, and then sew to skirt rights sides together, matching seam lines, and Center Front and Center Back.

The battle is won, now we have to win the war! 
Step Three:
Trim the seam allowances that were just sewn. Trim the facing seam allowance to 3/8", and the skirt seam allowance to 1/4" (no seam allowances will show through the skirt if you do this). 

Yay! Step Four:
Press the seam allowances open, and then edge stitch the facing to it's seam allowance. Pictured below is showing the right side of the facing and skirt. Then press the facing inside the skirt, favoring the skirt edge by 1/8", so that you don't see the seam on the hem at all. You'll be left with a nice clean edge without stitching showing.

Last step! Step Five:
Use the blind stitch on your machine to secure the facing to the skirt. Pin this well before you stitch so that the blind stitch is parallel to the edge (very professional). You'll notice with hemming with a facing that you won't get any wrinkles in the hem, because a lot of skirt hem circumferences are either larger or smaller than the circumference of the hem point on the skirt. I'm telling you, making a hem facing is where it's at. Below is what the facing will look like on the inside once you're done.

I think we have a winner....

I got Whitney's lining in today for her skirt! Isn't the combo gorge?? My goal is to have this skirt done by Valentine's Day, so she has something nice to wear for... whatever she does.

Today I'll be altering the skirt pattern a bit, and cutting out the lining and yoke facing. I am taking a break from the damn zippers.

*&%($&%!!!!!!!!!!

One thing I've learned about sewing: it lends to heavy swearing in my thoughts and out loud. 

Today I broke in my new Invisible Zipper foot, which is totally worth every penny and I highly recommend it. No more picking bad zippers or ironing!.......Or so I thought. 

After I took this picture, I sat down at my computer and the zipper popped open....... I will spare your innocent ears my reaction. I have NO IDEA what I am doing wrong, and I have never had this many problems with one dress before. I have another trick up my sleeve, which I think might work. I went to the gym afterward to get out my frustration, and to further that task I am going to watch reruns of Parks and Recreation until I'm wetting my pants in fits of hilarity. Have a good weekend.

I hope someday to look in my bank account and find something there. It's saving, right?

Hello all! I am back from the dead and I missed you! I am 100% better, and taking extreme action this week to catch up. This week meaning the next two days, and next week. 

News:

I bought an Invisible Zipper Foot!!! I am SO happy I did. I'm trying it out today on my latest PD that needs finishin'. Pictures to come of finished product and review of the zipper foot, but here are the deats:

- It cost over $50 dollars, and I couldn't find it cheaper online anywhere (hence the stressed-out title of this post). Crazy, right? But I'm trying to think of it as an opportunity cost (business jargon) in that it would cost me more to rip out stupid zippers that fall apart all the time. And maybe I'll be able to have my semi-natural black hair a little longer without grays creeping in. 

- The main reason why it cost so much is that it's Bernina. I know that other sewing machine accessories don't cost this much. I am a Bernina snob and will never use anything else. 

I FINALLY put in all the papers to get my Business License as a seamstress and hair-accessories creator! YAY for productivity and checking things off that list! So next year I'll finally be able to count things as "business expenses", which is exciting. Like lunches where I "talk business", or a car with a "Poor Man's Wife" decal, or all my "business supplies" like a $50 zipper foot.......should I have waited a week to get that? Great. Already screwed up.

So here is to a great month like February where we get things done, such as building your savings account!