Promises, Promises

I am now two projects behind on my sewing blog.  I need to post the projects as I go so this doesn't keep happening.  I hope to get some time and get myself organized, take the pictures and get back to posting here.  I'm enjoying the idea to change my teaching room into a sewing room.  I can leave stuff out on the table, leave the ironing board open, or create a mess and don't feel like I have to pick it up before I quit for the day.

I've been visiting some other sewing blogs.  So many of these ladies have it together!  Great blogs, tutorials, pictures.  All leave me wondering what I have to offer anyone with so many good blogs out there.  Well, as I said, for those 38 people that might be interested, I'm trying to get my act together and get going on this blog again.

"Did You Make That?" Part III -- Color Therapy

Some colors recede while others advance.  I knew this, but never really paid enough attention to use it to my advantage.

"Did You Make That?" Part II -- Breaking Free From Cows and Toasters

In my effort to break myself of using silly fabric to sew with, I discovered something kind of cool that requires a scanner and some cropping techniques.

Pick your pattern.  Choose wisely, this can make or break your whole project.

Vogue has a great feature to help choose flattering lines for different proportions like hourglass and pear.

This is the cool part.  If you have the time, scan the pattern onto the computer, save the picture to a program that can be used to edit and crop.  Zero in on the view you want to sew.  Crop everything else out and blow it up to print on as big a piece of paper that you can.  11X17, or bigger.  You should have an image at least 11" tall--if not 17".

Really, this is pretty cool.

Take the pattern to the fabric store with you and use it to drape a corner of the various fabrics over the dress.  Even better, purchase a swatch, while you are in the store or take it home and roughly cut the fabric out to the shape of the outfit.  Lay it on the paper and look at it.  Really look at it.  Picture yourself in it with your proportions.  The thicker waist, the bigger arms, the skinny neck, etc.  This will really help you see the item finished.

Scary Homemade a.k.a. "Did You Make That?"

For a while I got away from sewing.  I had some bad experiences.  That horrible mu mu from that cute little Vogue pattern I loved.  The enormous amount of time I spent on the"Walk Away Dresses" (B4790) only to lose 45 pounds before I could finish the third one and wear the first two more than once.

The other dilemma that began to face me is I found that I didn't like it when someone said, "Did you make that?"  When I sewed that awesomely cute sack-type 90s dress with the farm animals on it and wore it everywhere I went.  People would make a comment such as "What a cute dress."  I could wait for the other shoe to drop and discovered that as proud as I was of my creation and as often as I loved to wear it, I didn't like how others would ask:

"Did you make that?"

I've decided I want to start sewing again, but I want to sew like a big girl.  I want to sew with beautiful fabrics that don't include farm animals, toasters, or treble clefs.  I want to fight that urge to add my "spin" on something that Vogue thought was good enough just the way it is.

For my tip of the day, for your take away:

Pay attention to the dress and what the designer was trying to accomplish.  There's a reason why they are a designer and you are not.  There's a reason why view A has longer sleeves and no ruffles while view B includes a ruffle and no sleeves.  Why only View C is above the knee.  It's about balance, proportion, and the purpose of the item.  Choose appropriate fabrics.  Unless you're an elementary school teacher or a TV character on Saturday morning.  Those really busy cotton fabrics on the "quilting" wall are best left to quilting.

Not Settled In Yet

One of the things I wanted in my new setup was a Closet Maid closet organizer, so I bought one and set it against the wall in the hall.  My husband went in to put it up and we found that the closet had been leaking from the shower on the other side of the wall.

The shower had been a problem before, but my husband caulked it the best he could and we thought it was fixed.  Well, when he pulled everything out of the closet, we discovered a damp, moldy mess creeping up the wall.  He scrubbed down the wall and set up a fan and some odor absorbers.

So this week I am finally able to move a lot of my stuff back in the closet and start organizing the new area for sewing.  So once all that is done--maybe today.  I'll be able to make a good choice on what I will sew next.

I'm leaning toward the dress V8409, but what I may do is view B, use the plaid on the skirt and find a matching solid to do the bodice.

This picture does not do the fabric justice.  Just wanted to show
you what I might be working with.  If I choose to do View B, I
I will go with the darker brown  I think that will detract from the
thickening characteristic of plaid.

This is the V8409 I will be doing if I can ever get settled in to my new sewing place.

So that's it for now.  A leak, a new closet and a decision.  Pretty productive.

A New Home For Sewing Retro

This is the new home for Sewing Retro!  I am in the process of breaking up a larger blog.  When I moved the posts I kept the old dates in case there was anyone following my posts from the old site:

http://andsawmyself.blogspot.com/

  I hope to be posting here at least once a week or more depending on how my schedule goes.  I have several projects that I have not taken pictures of yet, so as soon as things slow down for me I will be posting quite a bit.