1st Knit & 1st BWOF

I got brave this past weekend and pulled out a knit to make a t-shirt. There is now a 1 year collection of BWOF on my bookshelf and I've yet to make anything. There are quite a few items in the 2009-02 BWOF that I'd like to try and I decided to make #108 the t-shirt with the boatneck neckline.

I compared my measurements against the size chart and I should be a 40 at the shoulders and a 42 at the waist & hips. The fabric doesn't have a lot of stretch - I think I'd like to try another one maybe a size bigger (& a couple inches longer in the body).

The fabric is a deep pink cotton jersey from a Wazoodle t-shirt bundle. In order to match thread to the knit, I used my sewing machine with a small zigzag rather than my serger. I sewed the sleeves in flat after taking off about 3/4" from the sleeve cap...the reviews on patternreview suggested this as the cap is pretty high. The seams are wonky and no-one but me will ever see the inside of this tee but it's actually pretty comfortable and I will wear it.

Anyone have any thoughts on the fit, any suggestions of what to change next time ?

DH was out bowling tonight and so I tried to take a pic myself. I got this one just before the battery died. DH is the photographer in this family...once the battery is charged up, I'll ask him to take a better pic.

Side note - apparently it's not as difficult as I thought to catch your finger under the sewing machine needle :-(

An award !

Marjie awarded me The Sisterhood Award - this is pretty awesome because to me it shows exactly what I've seen this past year since finding Blogland. There is a great camaraderie amongst the sewing community that I'm coming to feel a part of. Thanks Marjie!

The rules of this award are:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post - check
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude! - check
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. - check
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award. - check


So here, in no particular order, are 10 of the MANY blogs that I keep up with regularly. I have learned something from all of them, whether sewing related or in living with a positive outlook.

Claire at Little Miss Sew and Sew
Diana at Sew Passionista
Lisa at Sew Random
Gry at From the Stash
Trena at The Slapdash Sewist
Dawn at Two On Two Off
Teri at Mermaids
Faye at Faye's Sewing Adventures
Julia at Julia's Sewing Blog
Lori at Girls in the Garden

Now I'm off to let them know and hopefully later I'll have a sewing post as well.

A test...

I came across this typing test over at 2bsewing. It's been so long since I've taken one it was kind of strange. Very little of my work now is actual straight typing, it's mostly formatting the documents of other people. Anyway, it was fun...give it a try.


Type all the words you see on the screen. Press the space bar after each word. Words that are typed correctly turn green. Words that are typed incorrectly turn red. Just keep typing until the screen disappears and calculates your score. You can find the link to the test below. Enjoy!


65 words

A few more baby steps on my Coat

At the end of November, this is where I stood with my coat. The back was underlined, pieced together and the back stay was attached.



Today I did the preparation for pad stitching the front. Each front is sewn to its side front, the seams are catch-stitched down, the hair canvas is cut to size, basted on and the grid to follow for the pad stitching is drawn.


I used the information found in both Paco's Tutorial on the Great Coat Sewalong blog as well as Ann's blog. It was a great help to have this detailed info available. Thanks to both of you, Ann & Paco !

Next up - the actual pad stitching ...

Do you think the UPS guy laughed today ?

This is the package he left at my door !

I must say I expected a 'box' and was quite surprised to see this waiting for me - it's a good thing I wasn't trying to 'sneak' it in, LOL !

It was also a very good thing based on our weather, it's been raining for the past few days and I was worried about a box sitting outside for 5 hours til I got home.

It's unpacked (no problems - I got exactly what I ordered) and the knits will go in the wash tomorrow afternoon.

So, here it is all laid out - 7 1yard knits, 10 yards each of ivory and stone lining, and 2 yards of a poly poplin flower print.

The lining came wrapped on bolts so I'm just going to keep them just as they are - it'll save space - I'll prewash it piece by piece as I use it up.

All the colors are somewhat darker than it shows on my monitor - the flower print is NOT a bright color at all.

The blue on the bottom left goes perfectly with the light blue flowers on the print.
The green on the left goes well with a skirt I already own.

Two coordinating outfits - completely unintentionally ! Yaaayy !

As a note - this is my first experience with 'poly' poplin. It's nothing like cotton poplin, of course. The wrong side is very slippery but the right side feels soft like...suede ? brushed cotton ?

It's a pretty lightweight, drapey fabric and I really like it. For me it's a large print - the flowers are 3" across, so my intention was to make a skirt, does anyone have any suggestions ? It's 60" wide by 2 yards long.

No idea yet how things are going to pan out over the weekend, but hopefully there will be a bit more progress on 'the coat'.

Must Learn to Sew Knits

Otherwise known as I'm still 'collecting'

• fabric.com had a sale on knits and lining
• I had a coupon
• box arrived in Montreal today
• UPS should be at the door tomorrow

A bit of color in the Kitchen

On Sunday, I updated my WIPs to show the discloths done. Weeeellll, I jumped the gun a little. I actually still had to weave in all the ends. Now they're officially finished. 2 are solids but I used up the ends from the Christmas gifts to make the rest.

Pretty colorful - 4 to give away and 6 to replenish my own linen cabinet.

Okay - Tote pics

Apparently I wasn't going to get away without specific pics of the totes - Marjie asked.

So here are a couple:

With my little darling, Alex and the bag I used as a sample - I LOVE this bag ! :-)
She was not much impressed at first, I think she was afraid I was going to put her IN one ! LOL


Then, she heard a car 'Is Daddy home ?' - I lost all of her attention !



And just so my little boy doesn't feel left out here's one with both of them. Angelic looking, aren't they ? Hmmm, they're up to something. Don't let that cute blonde thing Skippy has going for him fool you, his nickname is TAZ ! LOL :-)

My 1st completed projects of 2009

My first completed projects are also no longer UFOs.

I finished the 2nd tote bag today.

No pic - they are both exactly the same (shown in yesterday's post), except the straps on one are 6" shorter. They were originally 28" finished length which I found really long. I made them this length on purpose in order to be able to carry it on my shoulder comfortably but it's way too long to just carry in my hand. A 22" length is much better.

Finished size - 16.5" wide x 17" tall. The corners were sewn to make a 4.5" flat bottom.

I didn't have a pattern for this. I used a tote I already own and tried to make it the same. The first one was used today for grocery shopping and held up pretty well with a full load in it.

Time now to get back to the coat. More progress to show soon - definitely decided to NOT do bound buttonholes.