Pattern Giveaway Coming Soon

This weekend I made a purse from Amy Barickman's Victory Bags pattern. Let me just say, I love this purse! My 15 year old loves this purse! (You may NOT have it, Ellen!) And now that I made one, I want to make another. And another....

The cool thing is...Jessica and I will be giving away two of Amy's purse patterns in a few days...and you just may be one of the lucky winners. Check back soon for more giveaway details and reviews of the purse pattern and Amy's book, Vintage Notions. :)

Ruth

Dress Form

Wahoo! After all these years of sewing, I finally bought a dress form! Yes, I'm excited.

Just had to share. :)
Ruth

edit: Emily just walked in and excitedly exclaimed, "Look! Mom got a mannequin without a head!" Too funny.

Coming soon...Vintage Notions book review!

oooh, look what arrived in the mail recently...a lovely package chock full of goodies from Amy Barickman of Indigo Junction. We're going to be doing a book and pattern review in the next couple weeks so check back...two readers will win a fun purse pattern! While you are waiting for the review and details, you can check out Amy's site HERE and her pattern lines HERE.

Jessica

Purse patterns to review and a fun tote bag... I love how the book came wrapped in actual pattern tissue paper from one of her patterns!

Snow Days, Sew Days

Sewing and knitting....I like snow days! We "never" get snow in Oklahoma, but ha, we have had 7 snow days in the last two weeks. And when it snows, I like to sew. :) (Yes, sometimes homeschoolers get snow days, too).

The skirt: Ottobre 04-2007 #14 "Pleated Skirt"
Size 110

The top: Ottobre 01/2009 #12 "Kaisa Blouse"
Size 110, lengthened

The sweater: "Little Girl's Shrug" #288 from Pure & Simple
Size 6, Berroco Comfort yarn

More details at Ravelry and Pattern Review if you're interested in the details.

On another note, I am so thankful for all your comments on our posts here at Sew Chic. We are truly blessed by you, our readers.

Happy sewing,
Ruth

"Eleanor" Dress

I bought this lovely corduroy fabric last winter to make something for Emily that would go with the striped tights she owned but didn't match anything. A year has passed, and I knew this would be the last winter the tights would fit my daughter. So I finally made her a dress from the fabric that matched the tights that will only fit a few months longer.... : )

Pattern: Ottobre 6/2010, design #10, "Eleanor" dress; A-line dress with long sleeves gathered into wide cuffs; big pointy collar; yoke with tucks.

Mostly, I like this pattern, but there were a few things I had problems with: I disliked the way Ottobre has you do the sleeve placket. Basically, you are to cut the slit in the sleeve and then just narrowly hem the raw edges of the slit. Umm....no good. Instead, I cut a bias strip and made a placket following the method described in Betzina's Power Sewing (not the kind of placket you'd use in a man's shirt, but a simple bias bound placket).

I also disliked the wideness of the dress. It looks cute on the model in the magazine, but I found it too wide for my daughter. I added narrow ties to the sides of the dress to pull in the fullness. I sewed the ties into the side seams 3" down from the armholes.


The three brown buttons on the yoke are all mismatched. Call it a design element. The truth is, we are snowed in and I couldn't get to the fabric store to buy buttons. So I used what I had in my stash that worked. Yep, it's a design element.

Overall, I'm happy with this dress and look forward to seeing Emily wear it come Sunday (if we are no longer snowbound!). Mostly, I'm happy that I'm sewing again. Hey, sewing room, I have missed you!

Ruth

It is finished!

The bridesmaid dress is finished and the wedding is in 3 days! We are all so excited! I'll be back next time with pictures of Ellen wearing her new dress.

Happy Sewing,
Ruth

(Flickr pictures)

Why Wrist Warmers?

A reader asked this question:

"I hope this doesn't seem like a weird question but why wrist warmers? Don't your fingers get cold? I like them but I'm not sure when to use them."

I used to wonder the same thing..."why wrist warmers?" until one day when I was playing my oboe and my hands and fingers were cold. It was one of those aha moments and I decided to make some fingerless gloves, aka wrist warmers. That was several years ago, but I never made any until this month.

Yes, my fingers still get cold, but not my whole hand. You'd be surprised how warm fingerless gloves actually are--I was. When your hand is warm, your fingers don't feel quite so cold.

Basically, fingerless gloves cover the wrist and hand but yet allow the fingers to have ease of movement for playing a musical instrument, sewing, crafting, typing at the computer....things you cannot do with gloves or mittens.

So, there you have it. Wrist warmers are great!

My 18 year old son bought me some Tofutsies yarn (I love this yarn!) for Christmas...and I've been knitting. Right now I have 2 pairs of socks on the needles that I hope to show you soon. I decided I need to finish a few UFO (unfinished objects) knitting projects before starting the Tofutsie socks.


On the sewing front, I've been hemming 2 bridesmaid dresses. Two of my daughters are bridesmaids in two different weddings in two different states on the same day. One dress from David's Bridal has over 6 yards of chiffon at the hem....let me tell you, chiffon is ten times worse to sew than satin! Somebody, please tell me, just what is the best way to hem yards and yards of chiffon fabric?

While I'm on the topic, how do you suggest hemming a satin dress that is knee-length? I had thought about doing a narrow machine-stitched rolled hem, but now I'm having second thoughts. I have no experience sewing formal garments.... Seriously, I hope somebody can help me decide what is best.

Ruth