Super Violet

We don't get TV.  I do let my kids watch educational cartoons on the internet though.  My personal favorite is Word Girl.  Word Girl and her trusty sidekick, Captain Huggy Face, go around saving the city with her amazing grammar and vocabulary.  Some of the villains are The Butcher, who likes meat and butchers the English language, The Birthday Girl, Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy, and my favorite, Lady Redundant Woman.

We also have Netflix which we download with the wii so we can watch on our regular TV.  One of the girls' favorite is Myth Busters, who have done at least a couple of super hero episodes.

Between these 2 shows Violet has become obsessed with super heroes.  She keeps drawing pictures of her super outfit for me to make for her that always include ruffly skirts, masks, crowns and capes covered in stars.

 

Personally, I'm not going to spend hours sewing things that I won't let my kids wear in public, but Violet needed a shirt and I wanted to make her feel special, so I came up with this toned down version.

She of course was thrilled and wears it to school every time it's clean.  Now I just need to convince her that I AM NOT going to make everything on her list!

Feelin' Bloggy

So, about a year or a year and a half ago, I made some short for a guy.
But not just any shorts.  I took apart vintage Ocean Pacific corduroy surfer shorts from the 70's, complete with 3" inseam, to re-create.
And not just any guy.  This was a 70's surfer dude complete with ultra blonde, shoulder length hair and a perma-tan.  Only, in his mid-50's.

It was quite an interesting project.

The shorts turned out great though!  Even my good friend and the best tailor I've ever met, Della, was impressed!

So Pretty!!!

I finally got something finished!  Hooray!

I actually made a dress form.  Is that cool or what?  I found the pattern from this seller on ebay.

The fabric is a lovely home dec from the thrift store.  It has "1984" printed on the selvages!  I can so picture it in my Grammy's house way back then, she would have loved it.

Anyway, having an actual, real, dress form helps so much in the designing process!   Yay!!

I'm going to talk like a Mormon for a minute

So my coat, right?  Oh my freaking heck! (that's mormon swearing)

I've used a lot of printable patterns.  Most of them are perfectly fine to lay out and tape.  Some are tricky.  This one was nearly impossible!!  First of all, there were 57 (!) pages.  With that many you know there's going to be a mistake somewhere.  Then, the edges and overlap were not clearly marked.  At all.

Plus, there are no notches or markings at all except for 1 notch on the top of the sleeve.

When I finally got all 57 pages just right and taped together, I had to go over each pattern piece to make sure it was actually correct, and then alter each pattern piece.  Sherry gives some great tips for altering and checking patterns.  I already knew most of it, but the stuff I did pick up was priceless.

Anyway, I shortened the tail, lengthened the waist

and the sleeves, added pockets, added vents to the sleeves, and changed the collar just a little.

It's going to be so stinkin' cute, I can hardly wait

Because I don't have enough to do...

I am participating in a tailoring sew-along over at pattern-scissors-cloth.  I'm so excited!  She's going to go into all the details of altering patterns, fitting, industry tips and tricks, and since I am a completely self-taught seamstress, I am excited to either: learn something new, or: confirm that I was doing it right after all!

I found this pattern that I just LOVE.  Of course I plan to alter it almost beyond recognition, but here's what I'm starting with.

Now I need to decide which fabric to use.  Both are nice washable wool blends.  The grey was a thrift store find and has a light weight black interfacing on the back, so it's quite stiffer than the black.  What do you think?

Photo shoot

I was finally finally finally(!) able to get some pictures of my Spring Collection.  Over the next few days I'll be editing pictures, opening the line up for pre-orders and getting it listed in my etsy shop.

I'm so excited!!!

This is how busy I am

I've been working on all kinds of wonderful stuff for my spring collection and pillows like an insane woman.  I'm in some sort of sewing mania.  I have turned out an tremendous volume of stuff and most of it I absolutely love!

Yes, I am showing off my mess.

But it does come with a price.

See my shirt from where I couldn't wait to leave the room to
try something on?  My kids are constantly appalled.

This is what my area looks like after just 1 day of sewing mania.  *facepalm*

Violet's skirt

Made by Me March is helping me to realize several things
1.  I'm way too busy to post every day
2.  I wear the same clothes every single week with very little variation.  I just don't have a lot of clothes.
3.  Boy do I need to lose some weight!

I was sick for 2 months, then okay for 2 month and then sick again for 2 months.  All I could do was sit around, eat and take pain pills that made me fall asleep.  My new years resolution it to lose 30 pounds which will get me back to where I was when I got pregnant with Willow 9 years ago.  I plan to make healthy choices and lifestyle changes and lose the weight in a healthy and not-obsessive way.  I've packed up all my too-small clothing by size so that every time I get to the 10 pound mark I can open a box and have clothes that will fit me, instead of having a closet loaded with things that won't fit.  The problem is, in the meantime, I have hardly any clothes!

So yes, losing weight is a health thing and a vanity thing, but it's also a logical thing.  If I lose weight, I don't have to do laundry so often!

Anyway, here's Violet in her MMM outfit for yesterday.  I took this adult skirt pattern, sized it down for skinny-mini, and added an underskirt.

 

It was a big hit in primary yesterday!  Click to see the details better.

sneak peek

SheSpoke again....

So instead of working on my new spring line, I get to do a whole bunch more pillows for DeWayne!  Yay! 


Do you sense the sarcasm?

Not that I don't love DeWayne or his pillows, but I want to work on my stuff!  I've hired a model, I'm dying yards of fabric, I'm so close I can taste it!

Oh, and here's my MMM outfit for the day.

This is actually a top that I got on super clearance, but the neck was way too low, so I took it apart, took about 5 inches out of the neckband, add 2 more tucks, and put it back together.  It's one of my favorite tops, but it's really starting to wear out.  Maybe I'll have to use it as a pattern.

mmm

I Cheyenne Nichols of My Little Sewing Blog do solemnly swear to.....well, kind of do the Made by Me March challenge presented by Zoe.

The problem is, most of my really cool made-by-me clothes are about 10 lbs too small, so I don't have a lot to show.  But my kids wear made-by-Mom (me) clothes every. single. day.  So if my clothes get boring, I'll just take pictures of them!

So here is day 1of Made by Me March.  My version of the Anita jeans which you will not see in further detail because I used inferior fabric and now there's a patch in a not-so-flattering place, but it's okay as long as I wear long shirts.

And a prototype of a top that may or may not be in my spring collection, but certain won't be in that color or fabric.  I like the style, but not the color or fabric.

Violet assured me that I would be cute if I posed like this.

The first item in the spring collection!

I love cute hats.  And I hate raindrops on my glasses.

Sal the hat model.  I think it's a bit big.

This is a pretty cream chenille with machine embroidery.  Can't you just imagine wearing this with a light jacket in April when who-knows-what the weather is going to do?  I love it.  As soon as I get some real pictures its going up in my shop, but I am definitely keeping one for myself!


PS  Oh My Goodness! I can't believe I did that!  It's not chenille, it's wide wale corduroy!  And I call myself a dressmaker *sheesh*

I think I'll call her "Sal"

I made this pretty little doll as a mannequin to display my kids clothes.  I think she turned out so pretty!

cute little fingers

My Sweetheart is creeped out by her.  She's too realistic.  He's says that she's going to brutally murder him in his sleep.  He has obviously seen way more scary movies than I have.

 

It doesn't help that she has a piece of pvc pipe sticking out so she can stand and she's usually standing on the back of the couch and she's the size and shape of a real toddler.

But I like her!  I think she's sweet.  And both my girls want me to cut the stick off and let them have her.  Maybe they'll get their own for Christmas.

But then there will be 3 scary dolls to kill Sweetheart in his sleep...

A happy, upbeat post

Well that last post was a big ball of depressing.  Sorry about that.  I've been trying to push through all the emotional stuff and think about my work rationally.  The reality is that I'm sick for months at a time.  It sucks, but it's not a death sentence.  I can use my creativity in other ways.  I can find things to do that don't require standing or sitting up straight.  I can take things one day at a time.

So I'm going to work on my poor little neglected supply shop and I'm exploring other fun crafty options which may or may not actually work, but that I can do partially reclined on the couch.  I'll post about that later.

 

And since every blog post should have a picture, here's my girls in their matching first day of school outfits that I made.  You can't see the details at all, but their faces are just so sweet! 

Okay fine, one more pic.  The top is a very soft cotton knit.  It's black with little itty bitty white polka dots (which don't show in the pic at all but the add a nice softness to the overall look) and I embroidered a redwork paisley in bright pink on Willow's and purple on Violet's.  Then I put another layer of fabric at the yoke so the embroidery wouldn't be scratchy on the girls' skin.  I do want them to actually wear it!  The skirt is a charcoal grey rib knit.

Look at that!  A happy, upbeat post!  Hooray!

*sigh*

I am so stinkin' frustrated.  I have been working SO hard on my spring collection.  I've been making patterns, dyeing (dying?) fabric, bought a tripod, been looking for a model, etc., but I don't get very far before my kidney starts hurting.

My kidney looks like this except with little rocks in it

    

When it hurts a little bit, I can't stand at my work table to do anything.  When it hurts moderately, I can't sit up straight at my sewing machine.  When it hurts a lot I have to take major pain killers and then I can't think or stay awake.


That really makes it hard to get any work done!  It's also not helping with my weight loss goals.  I may just have to be content 10 lbs over "healthy and normal", which sucks too.

Anyway, I'm feeling very discouraged.  If I can't even get my dishes done in time for dinner, how am I supposed to get my spring collection done in time for spring?  Some days aren't so bad.  Some days I'm totally couch ridden.  And it usually goes on for months.  Maybe I should abandon the idea of being an independent fashion designer.  I've already given up tailoring and dressmaking because I can't meet deadlines.  I don't know.

*sigh*





PS, I normally try to make all my posts fun and uplifting, so I hope you'll get a chuckle from my pictures.  I really do want some feed back though.  I don't know if I should just give up or what!

I'm dying

Or maybe not.
Dying is when you cease to live. "I'm going to die. I'm dying." What is the verb when you're using dye? Is it still dying? It doesn't look right to me, but neither does dyeing. Although spellcheck says that both are correct (although the word "spellcheck" is apparently not a word). Grammar Nazis? Anyone?


Anyway, I got to dye some fabric last night for my upcoming spring line. However, I was hoping for a nice fresh apple green but what I got was more of a celery. Very pretty but it doesn't match my inspiration fabric, and it doesn't go well with the red, pink and blue I want.


Oh well, more dye shopping.