Last FO of January

This is a picture of my finished Butterick B6100 Blouse. Or the Blue Butterick Blouse as I'm calling it. Fabric is light blue Oxford shirting from the clearance section of Joanns. 

Colette Moneta

My newest adventure is sewing with knits. This is the Colette Moneta pattern. And it's actually the second one I made. The first one was turquoise, but I accidentally cut the skirt when I was using my serger. There were tears. 

So I bought more interlock jersey knit and made another one tonight. I love the fit and I know that it will get worn often. And I'm also sure that I will sew more Monetas. 

With the leftover fabric from the ill-fated turquoise dress, I made a scarf. I may have to crochet something to attach to it to jazz it up. :)

PJ's

Handmade PJs for the whole family! I used the Margot pajama pants pattern from Tilly Walnes' Love at First Stitch for my pair, then drafted patterns for the other two pairs based on pjs that I knew fit. Then one weekend later, I made three more pairs for myself! 

This week's sewing

This week I made a blouse and a skirt! 

The Colette Sorbetto top is an easy, free, tank-top pattern. It took two evenings after work, and I wore it to work on Friday with a cardigan that I upcycled from a pullover. 

I made another pattern from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walnes. The Delphine skirt is a pretty easy to make a-line skirt. I made it out of a khaki twill I picked up at Joanns. Next time I make this pattern, I'm going to add pockets.

Pocket Perfect Purse

Today I finished sewing a Pocket Perfect Purse from Indygo Junction. I bought the fabric and handles at Joanns yesterday. The pattern has been in my stash for so long that I don't remember where I bought it, let alone what state I lived in at the time. I want/need a little more hand-holding with the directions, but I did finish it and I'm already thinking about how to make another with a slightly different shape at the top. And maybe a zipper. And maybe...  😜 #memade #purse #joannfabrics #indygojunction 

Sunflower Emery Dress

I finished another Emery Dress tonight! This time, I made it with a sunflower fabric I found at Hancocks. I had to be very careful about placement of the flowers, but once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing. And the zipper didn't give me fits this time. 😀 

Polka dot Emery dress

My polka dot Emery dress is done! I'm happy with the fit of the bodice, especially after five or six muslins. I was a little worried that it was too big, but I have enough room in it to move around and teach comfortably. It really is the perfect dress for teaching and I love it! 

Memade

Dear blog,

One of the goals that I have is to have more #memade items in my wardrobe. During Christmas break, I had time to do some creative crafting and made a dirndl skirt with pleats and pockets and a Miette Cardigan. 

The Galaxy Skirt is an easy diy without a pattern. I used the pocket pattern from Emery to make sure that I could put in pockets before I cut into my dress fabric. I also used the directions for the invisible zipper from the Emery Dress. (It was the start of the zipper wars!) I think that the skirt turned out great. I will definitely wear it often. Next time I will interface the waistband. 

The Miette Cardigan by Andi Satterlund is a free pattern that has been in my Ravelry queue for a while. I grabbed some Kraemer Perfection Worsted in Bright Blue from my stash (originally from The Knitting Fairy) and went to work. It was an easy pattern. I love top-down seamless sweaters! I have a tall torso, so the next time that I make it (I rarely repeat a knitting or crochet pattern, but I love Miette so much that I must do more) I will probably add another inch or so to the length. I like the cropped look with skirts and dresses, but I kept tugging at it when I wore it. 

I love both pieces and I'm even more excited to add to my #memade wardrobe this year. 

Creatively yours,

Melly

I conquered the zipper!

Dear blog,

I conquered the zipper! It took many more tries, but it is in. I also hand stitched the lining this evening. It's really looking like a dress now. Tomorrow, I plan on doing the sleeves and then the skirt hem in the only thing left. While I'm very excited to have a #memade dress to wear, I'm also trying to go slow and enjoy the process. The only problem with these plans is that I go back to work tomorrow after Christmas break, so I won't have the same kind of time I had for the last two weeks.

I am also working on a knitted cardigan. The pattern is called Myrna by Andi Satterlund. I'm making it in a beautiful light blue Cascade 220 superwash. I'm participating in Andi's Selfish Sweater Knitalong aka SSK2016. 

Until next time,
Melly

New adventures

Dear blog,

Today I am starting a new adventure called blogging. My aim is to document my crafty and creative pursuits. Mainly, I crochet, knit, and sew. But I also dabble in many other creative outlets.

My latest adventure is sewing clothing for myself. I recently fell in love with the Emery Dress pattern by Christine Haynes. There are so many beautiful versions on instagram! After buying the digital version of the pattern, I printed and taped it all together. Unfortunately, my new printer didn't print it right, but I didn't realize it until muslin #1 didn't fit. So I reprinted and tried again. Muslin #2 didn't fit....I made 4 muslins before the bodice fit the right way. I also wanted to make sure that I could put in an invisible zipper before I started the real dress, so I made a quick skirt and used the pocket pattern and the invisible zipper directions from Emery. First zipper install was, well, creative. I guess I twisted the zip around the wrong way and I couldn't get the thing zipped after sewing it in. So I ripped it out and tried again. Second time success!

Then I was ready to cut into my "real" fabric. For my first Emery (I am already planning many, many more!), I chose a red and light blue polka dot quilting cotton from Joann's. I carefully cut the pieces and serged around the edges, then sewed the darts and pressed everything. This evening, I got all the way to the point where you install the zipper. I had to make anther trip to Joann's for another invisible zipper foot (I accidentally sent the first one with the old sewing machine when mom brought the new one). I tried on the dress with the skirt attached before I inserted the zip...and it was too big! After a few more alterations and a lot of trial and error with the muslin, I installed a zip on the muslin to make sure it fit. Second time success with that zip, too! Now comes the best part...I installed the zipper correctly the first time! Or at least I thought that...until I couldn't move the zipper pull. It turns out that when I pressed the zipper, I didn't press it good enough and part of the zipper tape was caught in the stitches and the zipper pull was getting caught in them. No big deal, right? I've taken two tries with the other zippers, so this one is par for the course. So I get out the seam ripper and start taking out the zipper. But we all know what happens with seam rippers. I cut a hole in the zipper! Thankfully, I didn't cut the dress fabric.

So tomorrow's adventure will be buying another invisible zipper and trying again. So far, the score is: Zippers 3, Melly 2.