Hula-Lu

My girl has been giving me the eyeball for a couple of weeks now. She's used to being the sole recipient of my sewing skills :D She's even gone so far as to leave her pattern choices lying around my sewing area (which is everywhere basically, so she's been leaving patterns all around the house). Hint received & duly noted. Here's the sweet little Lizzie McGuire top & capri from Simplicity 4162, all made up in hula-girls & hot pink dotted swiss:


She was pretty wiggly, so the pic is not the clearest shot I ever took...so I took another closeup of the top, which is SOOOO cute! I love the aqua on the hot pink, it's perfect! The rick-rack is a vintage trim from an auction. I've been hoarding it for years, doling it out here and there on baby gifts & projects. I'm almost out now. Bummer. Here's the top closeup:


Sorry for the headless shots of Lu, but I did a review of the patterns at PR, and I didn't want to include her face.

Bought buttons yesterday...actually spent almost $20 in buttons alone. AND my local Hancocks, the only place within 75 miles of me, is discontinuing Gutterman thread!!! What's that matter with these people? They are getting Mettler at least, so I don't have to mail order thread. It's bad enough I have to mail order most of my fabrics & trims!! They've d/c'd all the nice lace and all the bridal section. You know, not to get off on a rant, but THAT'S exactly the reason people have been moving to online shopping in the first place!! Stores complain that all their business is going online, but what are we supposed to do when all you carry anymore is fleece, scrapbooking, and home decor Made in Insert-Your-3rd-World-Country trash? Hancocks in particular over the past year has discontinued most rayons & linens, separating zippers, lingerie supplies (including ELASTIC! HELLO!!!) I'm considering buying the whole roll of clear elastic next time its on sale because I can see it going next.

All of their trims have almost gone too....being replaced by pre-packaged 1-3 yard cello-wrapped beaded/lace trims. I realize they'll make a lot more money off me if they sell it that way, but if I don't buy it because I need more than 1 yard and refuse to buy a bunch of packages, then they're STILL losing money. I've never been so sick of looking at fleece in my entire life. Even the ladies at Hancocks were complaining. It was over 100 degrees here yesterday. And they were sick of cutting fleece. Um, what the heck are people making with fleece in July?! Ok, rant over.

Let's talk about buttons...What is it about buttons? I love them!! I love running my fingers through them, I love planning whole outfits around them... I guess that's why they're so expensive! Here's my button gorgefest from yesterday (which doesn't look so bad until you consider I bought multiples of each):


And a closeup of the red ones, because they're so sparkly!!


I love these mult-color sparklers too...I think they'll look great on either a plain black blouse or a plain white one:


And I wouldn't normally see myself as a flower-shaped button kind of girl, but these in a faux animal print/tortoise shell are just adorable! I have no idea what they'll go on. :D


I guess on the whole "sewing is an expensive hobby" train of thought, buttons really aren't that expensive in comparison. I highly recommend a day of button shopping for anybody in a sewing funk!

Today's Projects: Lizzie McGuire skort & top for Lu and a slip for me, mayyyybeee with cami to match!

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Holy Cardigan, Batman!

Ok, trying to finish up the SWAP and it's getting soooooo close. It's actually so close I'm nearly sick of it. Are you ? :P

Here's the LH sweater set I made this afternoon:


The cardigan is, well holey, because I got in a way big furry hurry to finish it and snipped a tiny hole in the front placket. This extremely crappy incident sent me digging through my "scrap" bin to find that dk. brown rick-rack sorta stuff I bought from that mail-order place about 7 years ago in a bag of "goodies" that I am STILL pulling fixes out of. Sadly that place went out of business about 4 years ago. Good times.

Here's a closeup of the psuedo rick-rack fix:


Not bad, huh? And here's a pic of just the tank from the sweater set with a pair of LH Cruise Pants (the legs are morphed with the stovepipe leg of the Oxfords.)


I gotta say, this is the hands-down, best-fitting tank pattern I've ever sewn. I've made a few out of all different sweater knits & they're all perfect. No gaposis of the cleavage or pits. Which is a good thing indeed.

As for the Storyboard tute...I didn't get to it this afternoon, what with the cardigan rescue & all. But it's started & I really just need time for screenshots. So stay tuned! More tomorrow!

Project Runway Junkies

My PR obsession has now passed to my offspring. While watching last night's episode two things of humor & interest happened...G-man says "Smack me if I ever sound like that" (in reference to something Kayne said), and about 5 seconds later he & Lu found their inner designer. See below.


I gotta say, G had it goin on there for a minute. He created a one-shoulder, square neckline, asymmetrical, plunging-back top that was pretty hot. Lu added a pink straw hat & feather boa to her Greek Goddess toga number. It's all about the accessories.

As for PR itself, I am SOOOO MADDDD that the star of her very own bubblicious freakshow Angela is STILL hanging in there. Sweet, sweet Katy was just invisible in comparison (i.e. not ratings fodder disguised as "artsy-designer-character" like the rest of them.) I gotta say, Michael's silent brilliance had better not be the doom of him. Because I will be truly p-o'd at PR if he gets kicked off just for not making waves! Yeesh.

In SWAP news...I updated my storyboard with a new jacket and the cruise pant.

I also made a "Completed Garments" board too, just to motervate myself (and interested lurkers) of all the accomplished/finished stuff.

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Cruise Pants. (and wow I wish I REALLY WERE ON A CRUISE!!!)

But alas, NO. I'm at home. Feeling a bit under the weather today & yesterday. But I did whip out a pair of Loes Hinse Cruise Pants, in the crop version. These are made with a remnant of chocolate brown cotton gauze. Breezy & cool, and very little ironing required. Doesn't get much better than that! Here's a pic:


Two things I notice from this project...The sky doesn't shine through MY thighs like it does through Edith the Dressform's. Maybe I really do need to follow Oprah's advice & get me some Spanx underpants. Two...How come I get a perfect (and I mean perfect) fit from Loes Hinse's cruise pants, the slimmest pant I think she's ever made, and I can't do diddly squat to fit her looser fitting pants?! What's up with that logic?!!

I also made a pair of Textile Studio Soho pants. (umm, and if you're thinking you can stick to Storyboard Canon when you read my blog, sorry dear readers. I'm fickle. You're entirely right and these 2 pants are NOT on my storyboard. I promise to amend it ASAP. Really.) Well, I cut out the largest size, just as an extra measure of "in case" room. Way to big all over. Took in the side seams roughly an inch...still too baggy in the leg (never thought I'd say that again after the past few years of poundage creep.) And there's this weird bulge in the crotch area that makes it look like I might need to think about a jock strap if I play contact sports. Which I don't. (Or play any sport for that matter. Oh, and I don't need a jock strap either. My anatomy is OK. Nevermind.)

So I cut the pattern back down to my size by measurement and I'm going to try again with a yard of aqua twill I've got. They won't be pant length (they'll actually be bermuda length, but I'm just mainly worried about crotch & upper thigh...and NO, I'm never wearing bermudas.) What else am I gonna do with 1 yard of aqua twill?

Back to the sewing machine! Gonna make some more progress today hopefully! Will keep you posted....

Got My Groove Back (or How I Made 3 Wadders in 3 Days)

Recent pants disaster had me pulling my hair out. I even made a muslin for crying out loud! AND I traced the entire pants pattern (not just cutting into the original willy-nilly.) But one pair was too big, another too small. So...I went back to basics. The Pull-On Skirt.

You really can't get much better than LH's Swing Skirt. It's like instant sewing gratification. Here's the completed swing skirt for my SWAP, with the twinset from a few days ago:

Working off the immediate sewing endorphin high, I whipped out a KwikSew twist top to match:


WOW, together they actually seem dress-like. I completely take credit for planning that (hee.)

Now I'm back in pants mode. After all, my booty is going to get awfully cold this winter wearing only skirts. Plus, you can't really be crawling around under the computer tables to fix things in a skirt. (It IS a high school after all. Teachers have been arrested for less.)

"Cutting" out of here, sewing fans!
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