Floral Skirt for Me

I made a skirt to wear with my Halloween costume. I just grabbed whatever fabric seemed like it would work for the costume and used this skirt tutorial to make a gathered skirt with a waistband.  It was simple, and pretty quick, considering my machine is in the shop and I was using someone else's.  I've done enough gathering and blind hemming that I was able to mostly whip it out.

And, my kids are cute. I think I only made one of them cry while getting ready for church!

The Eva Dress (x3)

I made my dress for Rachel's wedding using a free printable pattern: The Eva Dress. Printable patterns can be daunting. This one was 49 pages. You print it out and then you have to tape it together. Luckily I had help on my side. John trimmed the top and right side of each page and I taped them together.

I made the smallest size, 36. I am actually a 34, but since Staples printed my pattern at 90%, it turned out ok.

I also made a practice dress using fabric from Walmart (which actually cost more than my actual dress fabric). This was a great idea. The dress itself went together in just a couple hours, but I had a lot of difficulty hemming, hemming the sleeves, and keeping bumps out of the side seams.

Also the shoulders. The pattern was kind of vague on folding the front facing over the should seam. The purple dress turned out with a much looser neckline (possibly due to a difference in fabric weight) so I ended up making the entire neckline smaller. On the next dress I make, I will baste until I know this looks right.

Eva Dress Instructions

Interfacing help (cutting on the bias)

Understitching demo

I also read a lot of articles on sewing knits with a twin needle, but I wasn't able to avoid tunneling. I ended up using stitch witchery instead.

Here's the teal version I made Rachel. She wore it to the family and friends dinner before her wedding.

Here's my bridesmaid dress in action.

Adventures of Beep

Cute face, messy hair.

What mess? What shoe?

I don't think this is going to work.

Beach with Daddy.

Marching time at Music Makers.

Saying goodbye to Daddy.

Monster face. Rawr!

First day of nursery.

"Helping"

Longboards

Opening presents from Daddy.

Coffee Date Dress

Rachel and I made a dress! We were trying out her sewing machine to see if it was worth keeping (ended up selling it on KSL in about 1/2 an hour) and also teaching Rachel how to sew. We used the Coffee Date Dress pattern from BurdaStyle. The instructions on BurdaStyle are not working, but available on the designer's website. We left out the ruffle, and added a lining. Adding the lining made the whole project a big pain, but our [free] fabric required it. Not bad for the price of a zipper!

T-Shirt

My mirror needs cleaning.

I made a shirt! An actual shirt I will actually wear. Using a $3 sheet from DI and a pattern made from the Harmon's ad. I made the pattern by tracing a shirt I already have. I won't be using that pattern again because the armholes were much too large and I spent forever making the shirt fit me. Next up: a purple shirt for Maggie. And probably another one for me. Lots of material.

How to Sew a T-Shirt Neckline

How to Make a T-shirt

Modest is Hottest

I've spent the past two Wednesday nights helping with the Young Women. They are all learning how to sew and making skirts. They have to be finished by next week so of course I spent part of today and yesterday finishing the skirt myself.

I'm posting this because I learned how to do a blind hem today. See?

This will come in handy if I ever have to make another party dress for Rachel. I looked at this tutorial for folding the fabric, but what made the difference between getting it right and giving up (a la party dress) was reading the instructions for doing this on my sewing machine. I don't have a manual and couldn't get the download to work when making Rachel's dress, hence the giving up.

I now know how to use four of the 21 feet Mom had for this sewing machine.

Party Dress

Beautiful, huh? Ok, now stop looking at Rachel and look at the dress. I made that! Like from a pattern (Butterick Pattern B4195 Maggy London) and fabric (blue crepe). Go me. I've developed a sewing theory similar to my one about cooking: if you can read [and aren't afraid to ask dumb questions of the ladies at JoAnn] you can sew.

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side zipper (supposed to be invisible)

I used this Invisible Zipper Tutorial.