Thursday, April 30, 2020

Kwik Sew 2900




Hello.  I'm working on getting back into blogging.  I'm using my 11 year old camera and working with the settings.  I made this t-shirt in May of 2018.  I used a Sew Classics cotton knit from JoAnns.  It's held up pretty well except for some pilling. I used my Viking 960Q sewing machine only on the tshirt. This review is not great but it's a beginning.


Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Kwik Sew 2900

Year before last, I had made a few turtle necks and I could not remember which pattern I had used.  This winter I wanted a few mock turtles to wear as long T shirts during the winter.  I made these the last 2 weeks of December.  In North Texas then, the temps were up in the 60's to 70's with more of a West to South wind.  Anything up here in the West or Southerly winds is usually a warmer crisper day.
 I tried View A in a cotton jersey knit.  The mock neck view.
 I am really out of practice with my blogging pictures and clothing blogging in general.
 The finished version of the long sleeve, mock turtle was that it was a looser fit, which is fine , but not the closer fit I remembered.
 The back view.
 On my sleeve hems and finished length hem, I used a basic zig zag, and I am very happy with it.  I did not serge this T.  It's a lightweight cotton knit and I wanted to just use the sewing machine.
Another view of the top.  I've worn this twice, but wanted to wear it more often.  The temps have been in the 20's just for this week, and these tops are perfect for inside and out with a coat.

The curtains and the window ledge pad I made during summer when I was feeling better from my 3 and 1/2 month cold.  I think I winged it with the pad, but the curtains came from the Craftsy class, Sewing for the nursery by Vanessa Wilson, I think.  I rewatch that class with every window project I do.  I don't think I've reviewed any of the projects.  There is a 16 inch overlay in the middle of the curtain on purpose because even though our one story house is up on a little hill, it's a flat little hill, and you can walk up to the window and look in.  The windows are triple pane with a gas layer between 2 of them and  that makes it hard to see through, but I still wanted the extra layer.  I used stash fabrics and matched up prints and solids and made another set for our bathroom too.

Friday, January 5, 2018

Vintage Family Circle Simplicity pattern (1981)

A bit of history before I get into the new vest.
I remember buying this magazine and beginning to make this vest for a Christmas vest back in 81.  Very newly married, barely in my 20's and new to more advanced sewing techniques, like quilting and sandwiching, beading, etc.  

 I was able to trace and cut out my size, purchase th beads, but ask my older sister to help with the beading.  I finished the vest and ask her tell me how to sew it up and turn it right side out.  She did.  I wore it with a cream turtleneck from LL Bean that year.  I loved sewing and I loved the vest.  She ask to borrow it to show to a friend, and I never saw the vest again.

This pattern I come across in my pattern stash  have always thought I would remake it again over the years.  This Christmas was the year.  The fabric had been in my fabric stash for a very long time.  I bought the 2 bolts during the Walmart fabric close out one year. 

 The beads are from a bead collage my son did for a college art class.  He did Roland Orzabal in beads.  We framed it.  Really a good Roland bead likeness.  The bells I was planning to put on a tree skirt I made in the same fabric a few years ago but didn't use them.

 Green rick rack on the pockets.  I quilted through the out fabric and the batting.  I sewed the beads and bells through the top fabric and the batting.  I sewed the 2 layers together at the outer edges like a seam allowance.
 I had thought to add in some more beading, or rick rack or applique, really smother it in Ellie Mae Clampett needlework, but left it relatively plain in the end.
Inside out.  This was a fun project and I wore it with a cream turtleneck and it just took me back in time.  Silly, but I am so glad I did this.

Now..where have I been.  Well in 2016, I was driving 3 kids all over the metroplex to work and school and other places, and I never got a chance to do any sewing.  Maybe some small projects or projects broken up over time.  I was exhausted and using a computer I was not familiar with and just put everything to the side.  In January 2017, I was planning on coming back, but I got sick and whether it was the flue or bronchitis, it was severe, and lasted into March.  I really should have gone in, I was emergency room sick or doctor's office sick, maybe even hospital sick, but I didn't.

Then I got very weak, like I had been in bed and didn't have any strength weakness.  I thought that would be my life after that.  I really did.  In the middle of summer 2017, I began to feel better and get stronger.  So far this year, I haven't gotten sick.  So I'm hoping to get back into blogging, figure out what happens to my pictures when I transfer them over from my camera, and maybe change my blog around to update it here and there.  

Sunday, November 6, 2016



A work in progress.  This will soon be Kwik Sew 3794, a very easy gathered skirt with an elastic back and plain front.  I added 6 inches to my skirt to make it longer.
The fabric is a narrow quilting fabric which I had purchased in yards years ago from Fabric com.  I've used it for almost everything and decided to use most of it in this skirt.  I'm not sure how it will look finished, but with a brown t shirt and sandals, it might look nice for summer.

Around 2 years ago, I lost my laptop and posting pictures to  that one was so easy.  All of my kids have moved off the family desktop and so I am trying to learn how to use it for blog posting.  It's different and a few extra steps.   I don't see a laptop in my future soon.  I've been sewing slowly and simply so my posts will not be exciting.  

Monday, February 8, 2016

Kwik Sew basic top

 This top came from an old Kwik Sew master pattern book.  It's a basic sweat top.
 I used up some scraps of fabric.  The gray and blue in the shirt is some med weight sweat shirt fabric and the sleeves are a lighter weight sweat shirt fabric.  I used black rib knit for the neck and the waist hem.  I took some design liberty in in the blocking.  I basically put my traced pattern on the scraps to see how much fabric I had.  Then I cut the pattern up, placed it on my scraps, eyeballed some seam allowances and began cutting and sewing.
The book.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Kwik Sew 3347

This Kwik Sew pattern contains a lab coat and a scrub or nursing top.  I failed to get a picture of the pattern to include in this blog post.
My son wanted to be Jack Hodgins from Bones for Halloween.  I used the lab coat pattern and switched the buttons and the buttonholes to the way guys wear them.  I embroidered Hodgins on the coat, and my son found this patch on the internet.  I moved it over slightly because there is a pen/pencil pocket area.  I ironed on the patch and it stuck like glue but latter fell off and the pocket was on, so I had to carefully slip stitch it to the pocket.  Next time I will use a good fabric glue.


 The vent on the lab coat.  I used a poly twill in a royal blue color.  I could not find a good match to the show's, so I went with this next best color.

 For the belt,  I went with the pattern instead of trying to copy and draft something that looked like what was on the show.  I did not make buttonholes.  I just sewed the buttons through to the other side.
 One side.  There is currently no light spot in my house.
The other side.

The little valance is new too.  I use a clearance fabric from JoAnns for that.  We have a high fence and yard in back and it's hard for neighbors to see in through the blinds open or closed.  This window is also next to the back door and long curtains can get dirty.    I only had 10 yards and made 2 valances and in the process of making a curtain for the window closest to our next door neighbor.  We have a yard and fence on that side also, but decided to go ahead with the curtain.

The piano we got also on clearance many years ago when the boys were taking piano lessons and the teacher said these types of pianos were good when you didn't know if you were going to keep taking piano lesson for the first few years.  They only took for a few years, but the piano sounds really nice still.
The cushion was leftover foam from my  pillow cushion sewing festival that's going on now.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Cushions

What I did on my summer vacation.  Not that much sewing and what I did was not very good.  It felt like a vacation where we had to get a lot done before going back to work.  We did some vacation type eating and I gained some weight.  I went through my closet and tried on a lot of things and put back a pretty good small collection of things I'm going to start the fall on.  My husband has decided he is not ready for retirement and went looking for a job.  I've picked back up on my walking.  



Look how big these guys are!  



I had some upholstery fabric I bought a long time ago when Walmart began closing out their fabric section, but I never found the chair I wanted and didn't have enough to recover anything anyway.  So I began to turn it into cushions.  I made one for the fireplace.  We have DVD's and dog things so I only made this one.  I made 2 for a bedroom window seat.  I'm now going to make some big sofa cushions and slowly use it up.  It is definitely upholstery fabric, stiff and doesn't feel very good for any other projects.   So I'm currently in pillow/cushion making mode.