Happy Mom's Day!

And I think it's time for a new project, don't you? And because I'm on something of a skirt kick right now, I've decided to do this OOP Simplicity (4605 from the Khaliah Ali line.)


Here are my fabric choices, newly purchased & ready to go! This is the Flutterby line by Tula Pink for Moda. (I snapped this shot this morning, and the color seems a bit off to me. Tula Pink's site shows better color accuracy.)


Jen (Tula Pink) has a great blog on her site, so go visit! There are SO many cute variations in these prints, and one I really, really lusted after wasn't available in yardage at my shop. But I am still pretty happy with my haul for the skirt!

I'll be making View F, the shorter skirt. I also plan to change the width of the middle two tiers. When I was purchasing the fabrics, I had it in my head that there were only 3 tiers (thus, 3 fabrics.) I'm wondering if I should root around in the stash for another print that "goes" or just do my original head-skirt with 3 tiers?

I got two other really fabulous Amy Butler prints too...but those can wait for another post.

OH...and Friday was "Decades Day" at our school centennial celebration and I went dressed as (my mom in) 1962 complete with a headband tucked into my beehive flip. I gotta tell you, it was WAY too much fun. I looked pretty good as 1962. Wish I had a picture to show you, I'll see if anyone snapped one while I wasn't paying attention.

My group also won 2nd place in the Decades Danceoff, with our rendition of the Hustle complete with a 4 count Travolta. We were robbed of 1st by the football coach who moonwalked and then dropped to the gym floor and did the worm!! I almost wet myself laughing. I am consoled by the fact that he was probably aLOT more sore than ME yesterday morning. :P

Literary Girl

Shannon has tagged me with a Literary Meme! The Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Technically, the closest book (6 inches away) is in Japanese, LOL! (Sewing geek in ALL languages.) So the next closest book (2 feet away) is Chill Factor by Sandra Brown (great book!)

"Just another wave of dizziness." Leaving the bar, he walked over to one of the windows flanking the front door and pushed aside the drape. "I've been thinking."
(Ya'll are just lucky page 123 is of the non-racy variety. Ahem.)

My 5 literary peeps:
1. Shannon
2. Kat
3. Keely
4. Dawn
5. Debbie

In other news...got my BWOF yesterday in the mail! I love several things in it, but that will keep for another post. Happy Hump Day!!

Hip Skirts - Fin.

Favorite Things Hip Skirts

I have bitten the bullet this morning and finished the Pleated Skirt from the Favorite Things Hip Skirts pattern. I'm still not completely happy with the length, but it is wearable now at least.

The discrepancy between the pattern photo and the finished skirt length was really not in my imagination either. Here's the pattern photo:


and here's my finished skirt:


I ended up not adding a contrast band as suggested by several of you, which I would normally do to add length. But I already had this contrast yoke and I felt that another print would be "too contrasty". Instead, I changed the yoke dimensions.

The pattern calls for the yoke (6" wide approx) to be seamed at the side seams and then folded in half lengthwise creating approx 3" depth for the yoke. I skipped this part and left the yoke 1 layer of fabric, making a casing at the top and seaming the bottom edge to the skirt. This added 3+ inches to the finished length. And it was STILL a bit too short!!

Obviously I'm not 20 anymore so I'm not wearing it way DOWN THERE on my hips, but even if I were I don't think the skirt would be as long as it appears in the photo. And I barely turned up 3/8 inch to hem this. Teeny hem.

I'm also not fond of my yoke fabric choice. I didn't think it would show with a top since it was only (supposed to be) about a 3" depth, so I wasn't worried about the print. However, by increasing the yoke depth to 6", I created a solid light-colored band of fabric right across the widest part of me. Not terribly flattering.

I'm just glad its finished so I can move on! I might wear it out and see if I like it. It's probably not going to be my favorite thing though. No pun intended.

Japanese Fashion

My Japanese sbooks have arrived! Yay! I ordered from YesAsia (This is a link to a bunch of sewing books to get you started!) This was my 2nd order from YesAsia and everything arrived like clockwork when they said it would (about 3 weeks.) Here's my haul (with ISBN ):

4579110005

4579109910

4579111435

4579111354

4579109619

Use the ISBN to google these too. And go check out pomadour24 on ebay or etsy. He/she gives interior pictures too, so it's easy to find the book with the projects you really like before purchasing. But BUY from YesAsia. You'll save about $10/book AND save on shipping.

It's going to be hard to pick a project. I am especially in love with the Fashion From Cinema book, which features a tiny snapshot of a movie (mostly vintage flicks) and a pattern for a garment in the character's style. Downside? These patterns are only offered in one size (which is unknown to me at this point.) And all black lines on the railroad track of pattern lines will be a nightmare to trace! This book will probably be inspiration only.

Couple of peeks inside: (Too much coffee, sorry for the really crappy pics this morning!)

A dress inspired by Julianne Moore in The Hours:

Top & skirt inspired by Renee Zellweger in Down with Love:

I also really really love the Skirt a la Carte book. (Actually I love all of Kayaki Machiko's books. Gorgeous clothes. Remember that Japanese read right to left, so you may have better luck searching for her online as Machiko Kayaki? I think there's a Flickr group dedicated to her stuff.)

Every skirt in here is CUTE. Here are a couple of I really like:



Comparing Sizing to BWOF...
Another plus with the skirt book is that the sizing is a bit expanded from most Japanese pattern books (7, 9, 11, 13, 15, which translates to Burda sizing 34, 36, 38, 40, 42) if you go by HIP measurement. Waist measurements are about a size to a size and a half smaller than the comparable Euro size (so a Japanese size 7 is the same hip measurement as a 34, but a Japanese size 7 waist is off the Burda chart (too small) by 3 cm. Ouch.

Translation: These are tiny people, people. :D

Let's not even get into the fact that my own pattern range STARTS at a size 46. (and the skirt book is the only one of my books that even goes as large as the 15/42!) Luckily, the styles are so simple and beautiful that they will be easily duplicated in patterns from stash/BWOF that DO fit.

Oh, and that WAY SMALL waist issue above...Ditto for bust. The bust sizing is at least half a pattern size smaller than the comparable BWOF hip size (about 2 cm smaller.)

Luckily, the sizing is perfect for dd Lu, who hasn't any bust issues yet! And she's outgrowing the kid line in the Big 4 fast, but too small for the women's line, so these will be perfect for her.

Reading in Japanese
Actually, you don't have to read Japanese to use these patterns. If you have a bit of sewing experience, you'll do fine! They include fabulous illustrations for any finicky parts, and the rest you can pretty much figure out using basic construction techniques. Also of note...my Japanese craft magazines all read in traditional Japanese Right to Left. BUT these pattern books read Left to Right.

Helpful Linkies
While researching which books to buy, I ran across a great blog a couple of months ago devoted to Japanese sewing books called Japanese Couture Addicts. It's in French, but I linked you to the google translated page. These girls are AWESOME! Not only do they actually buy the books AND sew from them, they do tutorials, take pictures, post often...what more could you ask? That it's in French is only a teeny tiny disadvantage because the translation is pretty clear. Scroll all the way down on the left and you can link to each book's blog posts (Book 1, Book 2, etc.)

Be sure to check out their links, because they have links to other translations (French to English Sewing, Japanese to English, etc) AND links to places to find/buy the books!! That can be a real hunt, because if you're buying online and don't have the ISBN#, you are searching in the dark! (Which is why you have mine up there! I'm such a helpful enabler.)

They also have a forum HERE, (also in French) but it might be helpful if you have a question. The translations are funny sometimes, but you can still get a good idea of what's going on. I got tickled at a sizing question (about busts) and one of the (google translated) answers was this:
I measured and calculated and would have a place to bring my chest which is not a chest of Japan ...

Ya. Me neither! LOL.

Weekend WooHoo!

(But where did the week go?) If you haven't voted in the PR Wardrobe Contest, all of the entries are up and voting has begun! There are SO many great entries! But my favorites are Emo's "The Clothes Make the Economist" (I would wear every single piece here.)


and I also loved and Reehti's Mellow Yellow:


I did make a decision between the two and voted. Go vote for your favorite!

I haven't done any sewing yet this weekend, but I did win these on ebay this week and they arrived yesterday! I love both of them!


And while perusing some of my Etsy buddies' stores, I ran across these HILARIOUS cards from a fellow Okie girl, The Surly Girlie: For when you just can't find it in the Hallmark section...


And my personal favorite...

(Not that I would ever need any of these. Of course.)