Monthly Archives: May 2013

Day 151: I’ve got the music in me

Dress Sponsor

Let me just start by saying this is a picture heavy post for me.  So be warned it may take a minute or two to load everything.  As promised, a very long awaited sponsor day has arrived!  Today’s sponsor is the amazingly talented and bride to be, Becky from Sew and So.   Becky is so talented in fact that she recently finished sewing her own wedding dress.  I am looking forward to seeing the finished gown.  Becky is a music teacher and, appropriately so, picked the theme of music.

Me Made May

Let me tell you, I had a heck of a time with this theme.  It took me several weeks to decide what direction I wanted to go with.  I couldn’t decide between my favorite music, iconic musical decade looks like the 80’s or 50’s or 70’s, show choir since that is my job…there were just so many ways to pick from.

Musings of a Seamstress

In the end I decided since Becky is a musical teacher, sheet music had to be incorporated.  I decided to make a circle skirt covered in “aged” sheets of music.  The skirt is not  quite a full circle as it started to get to big around to be able to move in.  Each sheet was “aged” by soaking it in tea and coffee grounds for many many hours and then letting them air dry.  This gave them each a unique color and crinkly look.  I cut my pattern pieces out of fusible interfacing and applied each sheet of music to the pieces individually.  Any edges that overlapped I machine stitched down to hold into place.  This also added a little more stability to the pattern pieces.

Musings of a Seamstress

Once they were all stitch together, I stitched in a 6-7″ zipper in my sideseam.  That’s right I put a zipper into a paper skirt!  I also stitched black double fold bias tape that was left over from my raincoat project to the waist and hem of the skirt.  It provided the perfect contrast to the skirt.

Me Made May

 This is from work this morning.  Just to prove that I really did wear this out in public and did not sit at home all day in my lovely new getup.  I even went to the library in it.  The girls I work with loved it!  They may think I am a little kooky now between this and all the crazy leggings this month but I am okay with that.  Creative people are supposed to be a little weird right?  I

Me Made May

 On a final note, what I wore under the skirt is just as awesome.  Both of these pieces were sewn last night and are entirely from stash fabrics.  The leggings are my final Funky Pants Friday creation for Me Made May.  You cannot see it very well in this picture, but the others show the holographic foil dots a little better.  These like all the other leggings I have made used 1 yard of fabric.  I decided pretty late last night that the musical skirt needed petticoat of sorts underneath it.  While the skirt sticks out well on its own, I wanted something underneath to fill it in.  Twelve yards of red tulle later and I was ready to be a Disney Princess.

Thank you Becky for making this day happen! I had a blast in this today and I hope you enjoy it too.

Day 150

Me Made May

Today is the next to last day of Me Made May and I am wearing a top I already wore once this month.  Fail!  I was running late this morning and didn’t want to waste time figuring something different out so I went for a favorite.  I will make up for it with tomorrows sponsor day and the last Funky Pants Friday though.

 

I got my fabric from Fabric Mart today!  I am super excited about it even if it is basic white and beige.  The only exciting things were a couple of pieces of shirting fabric for new dress shirts for Eric.  I will hopefully be starting one of those soon.  There are so many projects on my to do list right now I feel like I can’t keep up.  Truth is, I just need to stop adding things to the list!  For every project I get done, I add an additional two to the list.  Ahh…Sewcialist problems!

Day 149

me made may

I waited way to long after I got home from work to take my picture.  As a result,  I have super bad lighting that makes everything slightly blurry and much darker than usual.  Lesson learned!  Make sure to take pics first thing, or start going outside.  Today’s me made item is my newest skirt. Yay!

 

Me Made May

I had 2 1/2 yards of this Project Runway April Johnston knit from Jo-Ann’s.  Originally I was just going to make my TNT dress with it.  With a little marker making skill I was able to squeeze on this skirt, NL 6875, as well.  Lucky me!  The best part is that I only paid $12.50 total for the 2 1/2 yards I had.  The elastic I used in the skirt I got for free and I didn’t use any other notions for the dress. I love that $12.50 got me 2 new wardrobe pieces.  I did make a change to the skirt, though.  The original design had pockets and a cut out on the front panel for them.  Since I didn’t have a lot of fabric to play with I eliminated that pocket.  Also, I really just wanted a quick and easy skirt since the pattern is so busy.  I cannot wait to show you all the dress on Saturday!  It will be perfect to wear to the wedding.

 

Tomorrow was supposed to be a sponsor day but I am going to have to move it to Friday for two reasons.  First, yard work got in the way today of me being able to finish it. And second, the reason yard work got in the way is because it is supposed to rain here tomorrow and my sponsor outfit would not work in the rain.  In fact, it would probably fall apart on me, leaving me almost naked and no one wants that!  So, Friday wins!

Day 148

Me Made May

This is the outfit I was going to wear yesterday, until I realized just how cold it was.  I have skirts lined up for the rest of this week and I could not be more excited about it.  Wearing skirts and dresses is my new favorite part of summer weather. Other than the skirt, which I wore earlier this month, my me made item of the day is my brown and cream polka dot top.

In other news, one of the flowers on my sandal fell off when I got to work this morning.  Boo!  We tried gluing it back on but it wouldn’t stick.  I am going to try some E6000 and hopefully that will hold it down.

 

Have you heard what Katie at Kadiddlehopper is doing? There has been so much talk as of late in regards to fit and the crazy outdated measurement charts the big 4 use.  She is experimenting with them.  She is going to make one pattern twice.  The first version will be from the perspective of a first time sewist.  She will pick what size she makes going strictly on the measurement chart and following the directions as written.  The second version will be based on what she knows would fit and how to construct it.  Both will be made in the exact same fabric just to prove the sizing problems with the big 4.  She has invited everyone to join her and I think that I am going to.  It should be interesting!

Day 147

Me Made May

So originally, this morning, I most definitely had a different outfit on to celebrate the start of Summer of no Pants!  The problem being it was in the low freaking 50’s this morning!  Pants won because I had goosebumps.  The rest of the week, however, is supposed to be in the high 80’s and I have plenty of skirts and dresses to wear and make.  I am excited to debut my newest dress and skirt that I made over this weekend.  Also sometime this week I will be doing a sponsor day.  It is a fun one. I promise!

Day 146

Me Made May

Eeps, another super late post.  I will not let this become a trend!  Mostly because I am ready to pass out now and do not have a lot of motivation to write much.  So let’s get down to business (To defeat the Huns),  maybe I am in the loopy stage of needing sleep.  My me made piece is my color blocked burgundy and navy top from last years Starting at the Top challenge.  I should revisit this pattern soon because I have had another version in my head for awhile now and want to get it out.  But tomorrow’s projects include finishing the dress I worked on today and starting the swimsuit.  I have a guest post mostly written about it, I just need to get the pictures taken to go with it.  I figured that was the perfect project for a long weekend where someone, in this case Eric, could help me take the pictures I need.  After those two things I have one more dress that I am wanting to make for my brothers upcoming graduation.

Day 145

Me Made May

My me made item of the day is my Project Runway top.  I have no idea what the pattern number is and I am far too lazy this evening too dig it out. I made this top 4-5 years ago for my first ever SWAP.  I really should revisit past SWAP themes and do one just for the heck of it.

 

Sorry for being so late with posting today.  I have been quite busy.  Unfortunately, it was not sewing related. It was more of the my house is really dirty and I can’t take it any longer so I am going to clean for a third of the day kinda day.  At least now I feel much better about my life with a clean house!  With this being a long weekend I will at least get to spend some time tonight sewing until I pass out within the next couple of hours. Speaking of sewing, I did make a new skirt last night.  I will blog about it tomorrow and probably wear it sometime next week when it is in the mid-80’s again.  Low 60’s, almost 50’s, is just too cold for short skirts.

 

Day 144: Plaiditudes

Me Made May

Happy Friday!! It has been a long week and I am ready for a long weekend!  I have big sewing plans this weekend including a skirt tonight, a dress and a swimsuit.  Hopefully I can get it all done in 3 days.  Today’s me made look includes my latest and greatest pair of leggings for Funky Pants Friday.  Oh plaid, how I love thee. For this pair I used my recent favorite waistband treatment.  I zig zagged on 3″ white elastic.  This pair was pretty comfortable to wear this week.  I have one more Funky Pants Friday left and the pair I have in mind is pretty out there.

Day 143

Me Made May

Today’s me made piece is from the same pattern as yesterdays shirt.  I told you I love this top!  As should be expected from me by now, it is almost 9pm and I have yet to start my leggings for tomorrows edition of Funky Pants Friday.  I, at least, know what fabric  I will be using so it should not take me more than an hour to cut and sew.  I just gotta get the dress and skirt pieces that I have cut cleaned up.

 

Did you know that Fabric Mart is having a knit sale that ends today?  I bought a few pieces yesterday that I am needing to use as linings for some knit dresses I have planned.  I don’t really like this knit trend that has been happening over the last couple of years where knit, RTW or fabric, are paper thin.  I have bought a couple of pieces at Jo-Ann’s this year that are that way, but the prints were just to fantastic to pass up.  I really want to make dresses out of them but would never wear them because you can see straight through them.  For the last couple of months, I have been debating whether or not to buy some solid knits from Jo-Ann’s to underline them with but I just could not bring myself to buy the quantity I need at Jo-Ann’s prices.  You can imagine how excited I was when I saw the Fabric Mart sale!  I paid $3.59 a yard, which is a quarter of the retail price at Jo-Ann’s.  This sale was just in time because I really need to start making some more dresses for summer!

Day 142: Giveaway Winners

Me Made May

Today’s me made item is my red top.  This is a TNT pattern that I have made 3 times now.  I really need to get rid of this shirt because it has 3 different holes in it and you cannot even see the silver design on it any longer.  I am having a hard time going through with it though because it is the first thing I made myself after graduating college and more importantly after I really learned how to sew.

Enough sentimental, it is time to announce the winners of the May giveaway!  Drum roll please.

Helen of SewStylish  and Michael.

Unfortunately I do not have a blog or anything like that for Michael.  Congratulations! I will get your gifts out in the mail to you on Saturday.  Stay tuned for next months giveaway!