A Perfectly Purple Penny Purse

  So many of my sewing endeavors have gone so wrong lately (I haven't blogged about most of them) that I was quite pleasantly surprised when this one turned out as well as it did:

  I bought several little coin purse frames from this Etsy shop (if you order from her, be aware that items will take over a month to arrive) and this is the first coin purse that I've sewn using them.

  It isn't perfect... the gusset is sewn on a bit crooked, so it doesn't sit straight, and the entire opening is a teensy bit small for the frame, so the back isn't seated in the frame as tightly as it should be, but I still love it.

   The fabric is some that my Tia Eva gave me... small scraps from the quilt I shared in this post.  The ric-rac and eyelet came from my Grandma Judy, and the button is one of several given to me by a young girl whose dress I altered a few weeks ago. The only thing I bought for this was the frame- the interfacing and glue I already owned. I love having a bit of so many gifts in this purse. =)

  I followed Bethany's tutorial on how to assemble the coin purse, except that I used my own pattern and didn't use any fusible fleece, as I didn't have any. I think it would have turned out better with the fleece though, and I do need to adjust my pattern just a tiny bit.

  I will definitely be making more variations of this... hopefully soon. 

  Here's what else I've been working on: I altered my skirt pattern to a yoked, a-line skirt with a front pleat, and finished a denim skirt with the fabric that my mother-in-love gave me. Unfortunately, I didn't think to stay-stitch the yoke before sewing it on and it and the skirt both stretched and have some horrid bubbles at their juncture. I think that if I just leave my tops un-tucked it will still be wearable, though the zipper does pinch a bit, so it isn't too miserable a fail. Also, I want to deepen the yoke before sewing up the pattern again.

  I also drafted a sheath dress pattern for myself, made a muslin of it, and altered the pattern for a full-skirted princess seam dress, which was the goal to begin with. I haven't tested the princess seam version yet, but I hope to do so soon.  It's a lot of drafting I've been doing! I finished off my entire roll of freezer paper and still haven't traced out the finished patterns.

  Now I must be off to take care of tiny people.

Thanks for stopping by,

Baby-Love Shirt

  My sister-in-law (the same one whose twins I made these overalls for) is pregnant with her third baby! It's early enough in the pregnancy that they don't know the gender yet, but I wanted to make something for her anyway. So I made her a maternity tee:

  I traced around an adult sized small tee, then added width and length to the front to make it fit a pregnant belly. I also lengthened the sleeves to 3/4 length. I gathered the sides of the front piece to match the back with some clear elastic before sewing them together.

    I lettuce-edged the sleeves and hem of the shirt... I was planning on hemming them with a twin needle, but at the last minute I decided a little more femininity couldn't hurt. =)

  On the belly, I added a pretty heart with printable transfer paper.

  The heart image is a sticker from the 'blend' section of iPiccy, my favorite free photo editing site.

  It was really nice to sew something simple after all the time I've spent drafting lately. The neck binding is a little puckery, but other than that it came together surprisingly smoothly.

  I hope she likes it! (And I hope that it fits. =)
 
Thanks for stopping by,

Sewing Disappointments

  Can you believe that it's been almost a month since my last post? I have been sewing... but things just aren't turning out the way I want them to. For example: I spent several days perfecting my skirt sloper and once it was finished, I made a skirt out of it. Unfortunately, I forgot to a-line the skirt, and I just don't look good in straight skirts. On top of that, the fabric I used has a touch of stretch, and the invisible zipper in the side seam was just stiff enough that it poked the fabric out really oddly at the hip. I don't even have any photos of that skirt, because I am so disappointed with it.

 Next I spent a week drafting and fitting my bodice sloper... which still is imperfect, but is much better than my previous attempts, especially the sleeves. I sewed a dress up from the sloper, and once the bodice was half-way finished, I thought I was going to love it. But I don't. I feel like a nun in it.

 And oddly enough, even though the sloper fit beautifully, and the dress bodice looks well in real life, there is some pulling in the photos. The thing I hate is the skirt. It's just bunchy and puffy in all the wrong places, and terribly unflattering. I wanted to put in a circle-skirt, for a 50's look, but I just didn't have enough fabric. As it turns out, pleats in this cheap, stiff, fabric really don't work.

  It's shorter than my dresses usually are, because again, I was going for a 50's look, but it should have been even shorter to look right.

 The collar.... it's okay. I would have preferred it to be a bit taller, and maybe open in the front, but I don't hate it. And at least I know that the length of the sleeves works, though some cuffs would have been nice.

 All in all though, it makes me look a lot shorter and even chunkier than I actually am.

  At least my husband likes it. =) Here's what I'd change, if I were to sew this dress again: Add just a bit more wearing ease, lengthen the bodice a bit, leave the collar front open and make it taller, add cuffs to the sleeves, use either a paneled skirt or a circle skirt, and use a fabric with better drape. At least I learned something, right?

  I don't normally wear heels, but again... 50's. I actually didn't even own any heels, but I wanted some just for photos, so I picked some up at the thrift store. And no, I didn't luck out and find some that perfectly matched the snaps on my dress. They originally looked like this:

  Which is a pretty color but obviously doesn't work with a black-and-seafoam dress. I attacked them with some acrylic paints and they turned out like this:

  It's easy to tell they were painted if you get close, but honestly nobody looks that closely at my feet , and I don't plan to wear these again anyway. I'll probably pass them along to someone who does wear heels.

  The rough thing about all the sewing flops is that I really don't have much time to sew right now, and I really need new clothing. I'm just hoping the next thing I sew comes out better... my sweet mother-in-love gave me some denim as an early birthday present, and I want to make a skirt with it.

  Have any of you ever had a streak of bad luck/judgement/taste when it comes to sewing?

Thanks for stopping by,

PS... I have a Facebook page now! It's facebook.com/saygrrsewing if you'd like to check it out.

Three-Eighths Circle Skirt

 The week after Beckers was born, my sweet sister-in-law Rabi (nickname) came to stay with us and help out for a while. At some point while she was here, we came across a pretty skirt on Pinterest. As kind of a 'thank-you' for helping us out, I made a similar one for Rabi.

  I intended to make this skirt fuller, like the original, but since I was using a twin sized sheet, there just wasn't enough fabric. I started out trying for 3/4 circle, cut it down to 1/2 circle, and finally ended up with 3/8 circle. Luckily, it turns out that Rabi prefers slightly less full skirts anyway. =)

I added belt loops and a sash, and it closes with an invisible zipper. I also slipped in something else... can you see it peeking from the side seam above? Inseam pockets! This was my first time sewing those... I knew they would be easy, but they were even simpler than I expected.

  Those pockets hide really well... I had to do quite a bit of finagling to get them to show enough for a photo. =) The waistband is stitched down in the ditch... something I am truly terrible at, but that turned out decently with my stitch-in-the-ditch foot. I used a hem facing, and the side seams and pockets are finished with the serger. I discovered that my serger will NOT serge through zipper tape, after sewing the zipper in perfectly, and had to rip it out, serge, then re-sew.

 
  It turned out a little tight, always a risk when I don't do the measuring myself, but not so tight that it will go unworn. And I am pleased to report that Rabi really likes it. =)

  In the works right now is a skirt sloper for myself... while I've drafted many skirts for myself, I've never sewn one with darts. I'm hoping to get it finished soon, but with so little creative time it's taking a while.

  Thanks for stopping by,

Enjoying The Baby

  As you may have guessed, I haven't been doing much creating since Beckers arrived. I've been far too busy cuddling little limbs and kissing tiny, soft cheeks.

  And of course when I do sit down to sew I only have a few minutes before somebody needs my attention. =)

  I wanted to pop in though, and show you the lovely gifts my friend Karen sent our way. For Beckers, she created this lovely smocked bonnet:

 Isn't it beautiful? And it's just darling on Beckers:

  See the tiny, hand-embroidered roses? They are so perfectly sewn.

  I love it! =) And Karen didn't forget about the older sisters either... she sent two darling books for them, and some lovely scented soap for me.

  I forgot to take a photo, but it was all beautifully packaged and just perfect. =) And to top it all off, Karen sent a separate box of fabric for when I have time to sew again. =)

  And now I must go cuddle my children.

  Especially this one, who is growing far too quickly for my tastes:

  Oh, and I love having them in coordinating clothes. Booper is wearing her scalloped skirt, Gaiw is wearing her simple contrast band skirt, and Beckers is wearing her Little Geranium, which fits better than I'd dared to hope. =)

Thanks for stopping by!

Morning Glory Tinny Flip

Perhaps you've heard of the Flip This Pattern series over at Frances Suzanne. It's a fun, year-long series with guest bloggers who take a specified pattern (this month it's the Tinny pattern) and make it their own. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working on a pattern flip... I'm joining the sew-along, and I'm barely squeaking in!

 

  

  Obviously, the arrival of a newborn slowed things down dramatically in the sewing department, but I also got confused and thought the link-up ended next week. And of course there were multitudes of sewing mishaps and failures, not the least of which was a serger that I had to re-thread thrice to get rid of tension problems.

  Anyway! Here's what I changed: I divided the skirt into 8 sections and added a pink triangular insert between each section, along with some yellow piping. I made a mistake here and had to go back and add 8 white panels down the center of each section to make the skirt large enough, but it still has the look that I wanted. The pink panels each have boning in the hem, which didn't curve them out as much as I had hoped, but do help stiffen the hem and add to the 'flower' look.

  I added a handkerchief-style overlay to the skirt, two fluttery green layers bound with a darker green bias, which is top-stitched with pretty pink wavy stitching. I made some of the green bias tape into piping add added that in the petal cuffs-turned-leaves, which are tacked to the sleeves with tiny little pink flowers. The bodice is all of green, like a stem, but the thing that took me the most time on this dress was the collar:

  I embroidered a butterfly on the butterfly-style collar, and learned 12 new stitches in the process... it was a lot of fun, and I really love how the lower half of the butterfly turned out. I learned all of the new stitches from this incredibly helpful and convenient stitch and picture dictionary. I was originally planning to add piping in the collar too, but decided against it at the last minute. I was hoping to add a butterfly on the other side of the collar as well, but I found out that the link-up ended a week earlier than I'd thought right as I finished the first side, and didn't have nearly enough time for all that embroidery.

  So there you have it, my morning-glory inspired Tinny flip. It was awaited with anticipation and delightedly put on the moment it was finished by this one:

 

 

  What do you think? Do you this is a successful pattern flip?

Thanks for stopping by!

Beckers Has Arrived!

  This little one:

  Was born yesterday! She arrived on her due date, early in the morning. I went into labor around 2:30 in the morning, and only 2 hours later she was born, in the car on the way to the hospital.

    She doesn't do things conventionally.  =) But here she is, tiny and adorable! She is beautifully healthy, and sure of what she wants.

 
  Labor started in hard, no gentle contractions leading up to it, but I waited until just past 3 am, shifting positions to see if the contractions would slow down or soften, before waking my husband.

  Once I was sure they weren't stopping, we called my mother-in-love so she could come watch Booper and Gaiw. Then began an incredibly long hour while she made the long drive from her home to ours. While we waited, Joshua fueled up our car and put our bags in it, and I tried to relax.

  By the time my mother-in-love arrived, the contractions were a bare 2 minutes apart, and very intense, so we left immediately for the hospital... a 50-minute drive from our house. Not 20 minutes into the drive, the contractions started coming right on top of each other, the second beginning before the first ebbed. "My water just broke," I said, before two more contractions piled in. I think I moaned, and Joshua asked if I was okay. "She's coming really fast!" was all I could manage, trying to fight the urge to push, so he asked if he needed to pull over. I squeezed out a 'yes' and by the time he pulled off the road, all of 20 seconds, Beckers' head was halfway out. He called his mother, then an ambulance, and caught Beckers with one hand while directing the ambulance to our location. All of the pain disappeared, and there she was, in my arms, all messy and tiny and perfect.

  It only took 10 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, but it seemed like forever. I wrapped Beckers in the skirt I was wearing to keep her warm, and fed her. The paramedics were impressed by how calm we were. They cut the cord and brought us to the hospital, where everything was checked and was perfectly normal and healthy. We stayed in hospital overnight for monitoring purposes, and were released today... a huge blessing, since I am not fond of being in the hospital.

  Welcome to the world, tiny beautiful Beckers. We love you. =)

PS: Beckers is wearing her Itty Bitty Baby dress. It's a perfect fit. =)

 

In Progress...

   I haven't sewn much this week, due to an unfortunate encounter with a virus, but I thought you might like a peek at what I'm working on:

 
  This is a fun pattern flip that I'm working on. It will include embroidery on the collar, piping on the collar, cuffs, and skirt panels, binding on the skirt overlays, boning in parts of the hem, 33 pieces of fabric, and 8 pieces of interfacing. I'm hoping it turns out at least somewhat like the mental image I have.... There's a lot more green than I initially thought there would be, and a lot less white. I want to have it finished by the end of August, but we'll see what happens! =)

Thanks for stopping by!