Winner Giveaway and Dead Silence

Congratulations to

J StewartAugust 19, 2014 at 11:10 PM

I hope you've had a restorative break! Did you buy a hat? I hate wearing them as well, but I do love the idea of hats. Living in a hot and sunny place, I have a panama hat for the beach (as in, when I absolutely have to wear it). But panama hats I can do. It's really not so long ago that fedoras, caps, etc were an everyday essential, which I think is lovely. I kind of wish that trend would come back. And then maybe I wouldn't feel so self-conscious in mine ;-) 

for winning the second giveaway!

Could you please email me at sartorialsewing (at) gmail.com with your contact information so I can get your winnings off to you?

Anyway, sorry for the dead silence, but I am afraid that it will continue until next week, when we're moved to Kyiv.  It's been over 100 degrees every day here, and we've been busy running around getting ready for Kyiv.  I haven't had the energy or time to sew much, and what little time I have had has been dedicated to projects that my family gives me to do.

Anyway, until next week Happy Sewing.

Florida, New Butterick Patterns, and another Giveaway!

Hello dear readers.  I am writing this in a darkened hotel room in the Villages, Florida.  It's day two of our vacation within a vacation and I'm already a bit sunburned.  It looks like I might end up having to buy a floppy hat after years of my husband repeatedly asking if I want one.  Ugh, I hate hats, but one must do what one must do.  Right?  Anyway, I took some pictures on my way out the door, hoping to write a short post yesterday from the airport, but obviously that didn't happen.  I forget how little me time I have with a toddler.

Thoughts on Florida.  Damn, it's hot and muggy in August.  I step outside the door and feel like a icky, sticky mess within minutes.  Also, I really didn't pack all that well.  I am blaming Kerry Washington and her tv show Scandal.  I don't watch a lot of tv, but somehow got sucked into this tv show.  I have watched most of the first two seasons (since Sunday).  Oops!  I forgot flipflops and my bathing suit (both necessities).  But what did I bring.  I will say the vast majority of my outfits are me-made!

 This shot has the most store bought items.  Store bought- both pairs of jeans, recently purchased from Eddie Bauer of all places.  I was surprised, I went in to look at tote bags (we need one more for our jaunt to Kyiv) and the jeans were really nice quality.  They are 100% denim, so no stretch at all.  And they were on sale.  Also shown is a silk jersey tank (blue and white stripe with the pink flowers), which I believe I used V1310 for.  Two NewLook 6013 tops (plaid and white), Colette Sorbeto (flowers), a V2514 skirt (black jean skirt with gold), and another pencil skirt from a Vogue Pattern as well.

I also brought my Bronte top, with a Target bought skirt, a Anna dress modified into a top and another jean pencil skirt (made from the same Vogue pattern above).

And last but not least, a Colette Laurel cotton ponte dress.  It's super comfy, but isn't the most flattering.  You may have noticed my dog, Snoopy, photo bombing the top picture.  She had to get a mast cell tumor removed on Monday, which today we found out wasn't as bad as the Brazilian vet had thought.  It was stage 1 and well-differentiated, meaning that she has a 90% chance of surviving the next three years!  Yay!  

Moving on,  as some of you may have noticed, Butterick's fall patterns were recently released.  I had planned to do a post when they came out, because I was super impressed by them, but then the site was acting up, so I gave up.  There were many that I wanted to buy, blazers, dresses, etc.  However, as a sewist knows, if you wait a week or two, they will magically drop in price usually to $3.99 or less.  (I was really hoping for a Jo-Anns $.99 sale, but they only did that for McCalls.)  My patience was rewarded and yesterday I got the email that they were in fact on sale.  So I went on a pattern shopping spree tonight.  What did I get?  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

I love shawl collars.  I have yet to find one that is perfect though.  Is this one it?

Definitely interesting seaming.  I can see this sleeveless, with the top panel as either sheer illusion or lace.

I really love the back of this dress.  I've been thinking about it a lot, as it's a contender for my ballgown.

This one has four separate blazers.  If you couldn't tell, I like blazers.  I think I would make this into a full on double breasted jacket with two rows of buttons.

Another shawl collar.  I am intrigued by the smoking jacketness of this one.  However, I think I would take off the belt and turn it into a proper tuxedo style.

This one, I got of the skirt.  I am a sucker for pleats.

I may have also added a couple of extras.  Did you know that McCall/Vogue/Butterick patterns are printed in my home stated of Kansas, in the city of Manhattan, aka the Little Apple?  I didn't until my last order from them, when I received an email asking to confirm what I had ordered from them as a storm had damaged their printing facilities and order system.  (Just a random tidbit of information.)  

Now that I've rattled on for quite awhile, for what you all have been waiting for.  I have another giveaway! 

This one is three lengths of Brazilian cotton- all lightweight.  They're all either 1-2 meters long, I forgot to measure.  (Sorry!)  They are similar to a voile or batiste.  I love making tops out of this fabric.   Also are two Manaquim and one ModaMoldes magazines, which are two Brazilian pattern magazines.  Manaquim is the more famous one, but I have found lots of cute items in the ModamMoldes as well.

The giveaway is open to anyone in the world.  To enter, leave a comment below with a way to contact you.  The giveaway is open until Friday, August 22, 12 pm EST.  (This will allow me to get back from Florida and recuperate from my vacation and we'll be honest, finish Scandal.)  I look forward to hearing from you!  Until next time, happy sewing.

Welcome Back Machine!

When I dropped off my machine on Tuesday at Bernina Kansas City, I was told it was going to be at least a week.  Imagine my surprise when on Thursday at 5:40 PM, I got a call telling me that it was ready, and only going to cost $85.00 instead of the $400+ originally quoted.  Bernina covered quite a bit of the repair, as it was the motherboard that blew.  What I paid for was a service and the fixing of the handle, which was totally my fault while packing.  Oops!  I'll be more careful on our trip to Kyiv. 

It's good to have her back.  It's been weird not to sew for almost two weeks.   Yesterday I set up shop in the dining room and tested her out.  I almost finished my next Bronte, hopefully tomorrow.  I also started on my practice run for my next big project.   Poppies and wool.  This will make a skirt, but my ultimate goal is a ballgown.

I used Lumiere fabric paints and one of my newest tools to chalk out the drawing.

Originally, I was using a different chalk, but it didn't work on the wool, so I was doing everything freehand directly with the paint.  This little guy worked really well,  so that I wouldn't faff it up.

I watched the newest season of Project Runway while painting the poppies.  What do you think of it?  Who are you rooting for?  I enjoy at looking what everyone else creates.  It's somewhat amusing to see week after week people sending down super trendy items and stating that they're looking at the future, when obviously they're looking at today.  You can also see my new Iphone in the background, I finally succumbed to the desire of a new fancy phone.  Theoretically it should work in Kyiv, I switched to T-mobile because of the unlimited international texts and unlimited international data.  We'll see I guess. 

Here are some of my sewing splurges.  I'm rather bummed because the fancy fabric store has closed, so it's Jo-Ann's and Hancock fabrics.  Well and a new store called Fabric Recycles, in which it's like Half-Priced Books.  People bring in their old fabric and patterns, the store will buy them for however much and then sell them for $2-4 a yard.  They also sell old patterns for  99 cents.  It's a fun place to go to, but you need a lot of time to look through everything.  Also they do not label fabric content, so it's a lot of touching and feeling and guesswork.  We'll see how it works out!  Anyway, hopefully I'll get some sewing done.  Until next time, happy sewing!

Giveaway Winner

As it's been crazily busy here, running around and shopping, and hopefully some sewing soon.  (My Bernina is still getting fixed.)  I just wanted to stop by and announce my first ever giveaway winner.  I'll be hosting a new giveaway next week.  But without further ado:

 

Sox:  I have emailed the email listed on your Blogger profile to set up sending the fabric/magazine.  Please let me know if this is not a good email address.

Anyway, I have about an hour before I have to go get the boys, so I'm going to do what any sane person would do, and start my next project.  It involves this:

 And these:

This is actually a practice project before the real project, which will be my Marine Ball gown.  Until next time, happy sewing!

 

Long Overdue Sleeveless Bronte Top Tutorial

Now that we've been in Kansas for a couple of days and we have finally settled in, I have time to write a bit.  There has not been a moment of sewing since I have arrived.  Mainly because when I packed my sewing machine, the spool pin (who knew it was called that) popped off.  Oh and then I had decided to check it, but my lovely husband was like are you sure you want to do that?  So at the airport, we moved things around and it moved to my rolling carry-on.  I leave it to you to imagine what kind of questions we got going through security.  Am I the only one who hand carried a 25 lb machine over 5,000 miles with a dog and a baby?  And does that make me slightly insane?  The machine goes to the shop first thing tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get it back soon so that I can sew some.

Anyway, to my surprise, my sleeveless bronte top was featured on Jennifer Lauren's blog!  You can find it here.  I was reminded that I have a tutorial on how I changed it to sleeveless.  Here's a reminder about how it looks

 

So what you will need:
Outer fabric- I used swiss knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.  It should be a thicker knit.  You can squeeze it out of 1 yard of fabric.  How do I know?  I had two yards, and my first attempt went awry (I was trying to keep the binding) so I had to start over.
Lining fabric- I used a very thin rayon jersey.  Something like this.
Front and back pieces of the Bronte top.  

Ok, now let's get started.  Hopefully I can keep the instructions simple.

1.  Cut one of the front and back out of the outer fabric.

2.  Repeat with lining fabric.

3.  We'll do the back first (as I took pictures of this).  lay the outer and lining fabric right sides together. 

4.  Pin, starting with the neckline.  You'll pin both the neckline and the armholes.

5.  Starting with the neckline, sew 3/8" from the edge.  Then sew the armholes neckline down also 3/8".  (Starting from the neckline will prevent puckering.)

6.  This is what you'll end up with.

7.  Trim the corner as close as you possibly can.  You will be turning this inside out.

8.  Turn it inside out, by whatever means necessary.

 9.  I found that using my tailor's dohickey helped immensely.

10.  Press!

11.  Repeat with the front.

12. This is what you'll end up with.

13.Without undoing the points, separate the outer fabric from the lining fabric.  Match the armhole seams and pin the front to the back.  Pin both sides.

14.  Sew 3/8" from the edge.  It will kind of look like a tube.

15. Press!

16.  On the outer fabric sew/baste (I tend to sew, but you can also use a basting seam) a line 1/4" from the edge for the hem.  On the lining fabric sew/baste 3/8" from the edge.

17.  Using the line, fold the hem up twice and hem 1/4" from the edge on the outer fabric and 3/8" from the edge on the lining fabric.  (You can also do this at the end, but I think it's easier to do it now, since the fabrics are separated.)

18.  Do what I didn't do, go back to the pattern and remark where the front and back are supposed to overlap.  I overlapped too much, raising the neckline.  Oops!

19.  If you want- you can edge stitch the neckline now.  You'll be edge stitching the armholes.

20. Matching the notches, pin the front to the back at the shoulders.  Edge stitch the the armholes.

21.  Tack down the back shoulders as instructed.  And voila you have a sleeveless Bronte top.  (Let me know in the comments if there is anything that didn't make sense.)

I have a white one and a black one in my queue.  Hopefully I can get to them next week. 

And don't forget to enter the giveaway- it closes Wednesday at Noon EST.  It's open to everyone.  Until next time, happy sewing.