just keep sewing...

Yikes! Has it really been a month since my last post?! The month flew by and I really have been sewing or knitting almost every single day since my February post. But it was a crazy, busy month for our family so there hasn't been much time to take photos of my completed or in-progress projects. Coming soon, I promise!

In the meantime, here is a sneak peak of one of my projects:

So pretty, right? That's what I thought when I bought it but boy, was it not so fun to sew with. Easily snagged (even on just the skin on my hand!), puckered with a variety of needles, and so slippery. Another silky print from JoAnn Fabrics - they are just too tempting sometimes in my rural area that lacks fabric stores.

I'm starting to see a trend and thinking perhaps I should swear off such fabrics from now on.

finished dress, New Look 6864

So here it is. My New Look 6864 dress is finally complete! A fairly simple dress like this should not have taken this long to complete for me but a few parts of the pattern and my fussy fabric didn't quite behave as nicely as I would have liked.

This is a "design your look" pattern and I chose to combine parts C, D, G, I and L. The bodice is lined, has darts in front and gathers at various points on the bodice and skirt areas, flutter sleeves, zipper in back, and the skirt hits a little below the knees.

Once the flutter sleeves were finished, I did NOT like them. The hem seemed to flip out at the edge even after ironing and the sleeve felt floppy and unattractive on my arms. So I went for a quick fix and added elastic to the bottom edge to change the look. The sleeve was already pretty short in the underarm areas so I sewed on single fold bias tape (only had pink around so I just went with it!) as a casing for the elastic.

When it was finished, I inserted 1/4" elastic and this is how the sleeves turned out. Not the style I would have originally chosen to make, but definitely an improvement over the flutter sleeves.

As for the intended V style neckline, which I loved as a design feature, it didn't work out. The dress looked so pretty from the front. For a few seconds that is, until the top facing points flipped outward. I'm not sure what I did that made this happen. Perhaps the bodice was supposed to fit more loosely or more snugly or I didn't sew the facing as perfectly as I should have. Or maybe it's the irritating fabric that gave me fits other times. Either way, as soon as I would shift my body slightly, it would do this:

Not so attractive. I solved this problem by carefully hand sewing the V closed. I'm disappointed the V feature didn't work out but I am glad I have a usable dress.

I inserted an invisible zipper and hook and eye at the top of the back rather than a regular lapped zipper.    Then after inserting the zipper and sewing up the back seam, I noticed that I had cut out two identical back panels. URGHHH! I don't know how I didn't pay close enough attention to this earlier to notice that I was going to have this pattern repeat on my backside. Sigh. This is one problem just don't have the desire to fix. Too many seams would have to be ripped out and frankly, it's wearable as it is. I'll just cross my fingers that people don't notice and mock me in public,  ha ha!

I finished the seam with a simple line of stitching 1/2" from the bottom rather than hand sewn stay stitching like the pattern recommended. I tried blind hemming with my machine but the fabric puckered frequently where the blind stitches went in so that came out and a simple hem went in.

Overall, I like how the dress came out. This is what I'll be wearing Valentine's night when I go with my kids and husband to a wedding reception. The kids will come in handy to stand behind me and hide my funky pattern tushy. :)

casting on Piper's Journey shawlette

Well, that dress is still unfinished on my sewing table. Little by little I plug away at it and it really should NOT be taking nearly this long to finish. I only have the zipper and hem to go.

But it's just one of those projects that I've lost my excitement for and can't quite make myself finish fast. Ever have one of those?

Well, when the sewing stops, the knitting starts!

So I decided to cast on some knitting in bird's egg blue Chickadee yarn (sport weight I think) from Quince and Company. This yarn is such nice soft wool to knit with!

The pattern I'm using is Piper's Journey Shawlette written by Paula Emons-Fuessle. Paula has a wonderful podcast called The Knitting Pipeline.  I discovered her podcast a year and a half ago and have loved listening to every single podcast (even the older ones). In addition to being a popular podcaster, Paula has designed a few things and this shawlette caught my eye when I wanted to knit something unique for my mother-in-law's birthday.

Here is the the version I made for her last fall in Carrie's yellow (also Chickadee from Quince&Co).

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Please don't judge my terrible, end of the day, raggedy hair,  bathroom lighting photo. But I needed to snap something the day I wrapped it up for a gift and this is it. One of these days I'll have my mother-in-law model it in lovely natural lighting.

Anyone else have something fun on the needles?

working on New Look 6864

For the past week and a half, I've been plugging away on a dress (second from the left) from this pattern:

I thought it would be such a fast and simple project. Hmph.

Note to self - make a muslin first the next time a project seems even slightly tricky. But I will persevere and cross my fingers that I end up with a dress that I will like wearing. Setting a goal to finish this by Saturday evening. It would be so nice to have a new dress to wear to church Sunday.

easy quilted potholders

During the holiday season I wanted to add a handmade gift to the Christmas boxes I was giving to my sisters and parents. But I was in a time crunch (when are any of us NOT in a time crunch during December though?!) when I realized that I better decide what to make because they days were flying by.

One day I was using hot pads that were gifted to me a few years ago by my own crafty Mom, and I decided to attempt some myself. After a few google searches later and a couple of questions asked at my local quilt shop, here is the first set I came up with:

I used a mix of quilting cotton scraps to piece together the top and made my finished hot pad top 10"x10". Inside each hot pad was one layer of Warm & Natural cotton batting and one layer of Insul Bright batting. I backed it with a solid piece of fabric.

After quilting through all the layers with rows of straight stitching (used a walking foot to help evenly stitch through the thick layers), I used 2" strips (turned into 1/2" finished binding) to bind the hot pads and create a hanging loop.

They turned out to be fast gifts and took only about an hour for each one. The trickiest part to me was pinning carefully to make the binding match up on the top and bottom so that when I stitched through the binding it would look good on both the top and bottom. One thing I learned was that if I hand basted the binding on, I was able to very accurately sew the binding on and not annoy myself with so many pins not behaving.

By Christmas I made 7 sets. After Christmas I decided to make myself a set too. Didn't get pics of them all but here are a few more shots. I believe these ones ended up measuring 7.5"x9".

Next time around I think I'll put an additional layer of insulation or batting though. Most of the websites I looked at for inspiration only recommended 2 layers but when I use my own set, I feel like the heat starts to come through a little sooner than I'd like.

PROJECT NOTES:

Favorite websites for inspiration: 

33 Shades of Green

Film in the Fridge

Oh Fransson

Supplies:

Insul-Bright Batting

Quilting fabric used for some of the potholders was from the Reunion line by Moda.

Butterick 5495 long sleeve knit top

One category of clothing severely lacking in my wardrobe are long sleeve tops, especially of the dressier variety. I'm mostly a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl and I'm a stay at home mom so I don't have the need for a professional wardrobe. But I do love to dress up jeans when I can with a pretty blouse. And I enjoy wearing pretty dresses or blouses and skirts to church each Sunday or other special occasions.

After finishing the skirt I posted about last week, I thought it would be nice to have a long sleeve top to coordinate with it. In my stash I have several pieces of black knit fabrics. The one I used I think was a type of jersey knit. It wasn't as soft as a typical ITY jersey knit and snagged fairly easy (and annoyingly often!) on my dry skin. Since It's been so long since I bought the fabric, I have no idea what it really is or where I got it (probably a Hancocks or JoAnn Fabrics). Definitely not my favorite material - but hey, good for a practice blouse, right?

I have two patterns in my stash that are almost identical, Butterick 5495 and Burda 7625. After reading through the reviews on both, I went with the Butterick. It also was voted as one of the best patterns of 2010 at PatternReview.com which sealed the deal for me. The Butterick pattern described it as: loose-fitting top with front drape gathered into loop, dropped shoulder, seam details, stitched hems and long kimono type sleeves.

And here is the finished top:

The bust part of the top fit fine but the waist and hips was snugger in the back than I wanted them to be. When I basted the side seams for a fitting, it looked bunchy and unattractive in the back as you can see in the photo below. Next time I will grade to a larger size in the waist and hip area.

To loosen up the fit in the back I took out the basting stitches and instead of sewing a normal 5/8" allowance I sewed a 1/4" seam allowance. That extra 3/8" on each side helped a lot with the fit and appearance of the back. I forgot to snap an after shot once I made that adjustment though.

Overall, it came out fine. I like it and with my modifications the pattern was fairly easy to follow. Plus, the color are style make it a top that will go with with lots of skirts and pants. I'm sure the less than stellar fabric will wear out long before I get tired of the style, so I definitely see making another top in the future with higher quality fabric.

PROJECT NOTES:

Pattern

*As per other sewers recommendations at PatternReview.com, I skipped reinforcing or stay stitching the various pieces. I did find it odd that a knit pattern would have those recommendations and I'm glad other's mentioned skipping those steps so I had more confidence to skip them too.

*I also skipped finishing the inside edges of the self facing parts of the neckline. It's a knit so I know it won't unravel and I thought serging the edges might add bulk to that area. If I have a problem in the future, then I can always go back and finish those edges.

*In step 6, I realized that the notches of the pattern do not match up as they should. So I sewed it without matching them up and it turned out just fine.

*For step 11, after inserting and stitching the loop closed, I went back and sewed the loop insertion holes closed as tightly as possible because I did not like the gaping holes that I had.

*Also like other sewers, I didn't like the very deep plunging neckline so I sewed it closed with a dart at the bottom of the neckline. I basted it closed about 4 inches but it made the rest of the shirt pull oddly across my bust. So I decreased it to 2 inches and it looked much better. Still have to wear a camisole for my own modestly comfort level but I like some color with all that black anyway.

*I shortened the hem by 2 inches. 

*Sleeve hems and bottom hem were finished with a coverstitch machine.

Janome CoverPro 1000 CP Coverstitch

Used narrow left (3mm) setting

Left needle tension 3.75, right needle tension 3.75, looper tension 3.0

Differential feed 1.0, stitch length 3.0

Needles: Schmetz system Elx705, 80/12

my "new" machine - a vintage green Bernina 614

Introducing the newest member of 3 Stitch Studio! An avocado green vintage Bernina 614 mechanical sewing machine, purchased in rural Idaho for $40, now named Bernie by my daughter.

Over the last year I've become more and more interested in vintage sewing machines. The two brands I especially search the Craigslist ads for are Bernina and Singer.  I love to look at the ads in hopes that someone is clearing out their grandmother's attic and unknowingly lists an amazing and pristine Bernina or Singer for dirt cheap. Hasn't happened yet, but I keep looking.

I have seen quite a few old Singers in the $50 range but so far in my area they've always looked trashed so I haven't made any calls. And as for Berninas, I haven't seen a single one (vintage or modern) for less than $300 at all.

My hubby has been in Idaho and northern Utah the past few days on business so I searched the Craigslist ads in those areas. Saw quite a few affordable older Singers (and in great shape too) but the ones I'd be interested in were all in cabinets and I'm looking mainly for portable machines with cases at the moment.  

Late last night I spotted old Bernie 614 in an Idaho ad. It had only been listed 2 days before and had a very brief description. The location happened to be not far off my hubby's route home so he was a dear and swung by to check it out and then purchase it for me if it was decent. 

I don't need it and it obviously has limited functionality. But I just like it and it could come in handy for basic quilt piecing or something like that. Plus, it's was so affordable and so very vintage, I couldn't pass it up!

From the very little I could find online about this model, it was made in Portugal probably in the 60s. It's a straight stitch only machine and is all metal and very sturdy. This one has some discoloration around the Bernina label, just a couple of nicks to the finish on the bed, and a couple of nicks in the electrical cords. It runs but I'll have to have the cords replaced. Hubby is going to try and if he can't do it, I'll take it to my Bernina dealer.

This is a shot of the motor mounted on the back of the machine. It's a different color green than the rest of the main body so it makes me wonder if it's original. 

The foot pedal didn't have Bernina on it, so I wonder about that too. Mercury is the brand shown.

It didn't come with a manual and I can't find one online yet, but I'm assuming that this is the tension. It's quite a different look than I've seen on other machines and doesn't have numbers listed anywhere on it.

This knob is on the front right of the machine. I think it's for lowering the feed dogs.

The top and side of the machine opens. It was very clean inside and didn't have a bit of lint. Needs an oiling though.

And the scuffed and dirty case Bernie came in. Doesn't say Bernina on it, but the machine fits into it perfectly so it may be original. Not the prettiest but functional and hopefully will clean up nicely.