Ok, I'm going in!

I'm such a follower. I just can't help myself. But I also want to make jackets that fit me since RTW makes me feel like I'm wearing a poorly drafted straight jacket - no, wait, that would be more comfortable. But there're a bunch of sewests on Stitcher's Guild participating on a 12 month/12 jacket sew along. Note it's a sew-along, not a contest. Well, this supplies me with both my pathetic need not to be left out and a jacket (or two) as icing on the cake. No way to I expect to complete 12 jackets in the next year (or maybe all those subsequent, for that matter), but I'm going to sew along and post my pic's and generally just do it.

For my first jacket I think I've settled on BWOF (or what ever it was called) from August 2010. Number 114 if you have the magazine. The photo is compliments of the French website where Burda apparently still values their customer base. I will likely omit the breast pockets, they just don't do it for me. It's listed as 2.5 dots, and there're a lot of pieces, but that gives a chance for better fitting. Right? I love the fitted look, the neckline (no collar is nice for the look and the sewing) and the front zipper. I will undoubtedly have to add a couple of inches above the waist - that's easy. It's the back and arm scye I'm concerned about. That's where RTW always fits so badly on me.

So wish me luck and stay tuned.

I was asked, today, over on Stitcher's Guild about my Aruba waves quilt. In response to the question I realized I'd written quite a bit on how I did this quilt. So, since I'm always looking for fodder, I mean fascinating and meaningful dialog, for my blog I thought I'd pop over here and put some more information on it.

The quilt was done from a jelly roll or maybe honey bun (which is larger? this was the larger roll) knock off I bought at JA's just because I loved the colors. I'm a sucker for pretty colors all rolled up together and it kept grabbing at me as I waited at the cutting table. Then I didn't know what to do with the pieces (not the first time that's happened, I assure you ) so I just started looking around for things to do with strips that didn't take a boat load of cutting. And the French Braid kept popping up as I surfed the web. I took the strips I had and cut them down as the pattern suggested (found it on the 'net - it was free. Google French Braid quilts) and then just started piecing. This is the link I used, it was free, easy to follow and well deserves my link back to the site, as all my piecing techniques for this came from that site. It's a very simple quilt to put together. I did some maths so I would divide out my cut down strips to make the use up my strips and make the pieces the same size. I divided my cut strips between 2 colors: Blues and everything else. And then pieced at random with the blues on one side and the everything else on the other side (for the "wave" affect). I actually put the strips in 2 bags & pulled them out randomly and pieced the number for each section (3 sections) and then trimmed to make it rectangular. This trimming always hurts a bit - you loose quite a bit on the tops and bottoms. The only time I didn't follow actual randomness was if I got 2 of the exact same right next to each other and that may have gone by the wayside towards the end as the fabric selections weren't distributed evenly. Of course after trimming the sections, putting them together would have been too small so I trotted off to Hancock's and found the edging & back fabric - I got very lucky there with the fabric I found - it was a great color and even has a slight 'wave' design. And, believe it or not, I owned the binding fabric that I'd purchased for some fabric postcards that I didn't get to participate in. I'd wanted to piece the binding (like Kathryn did - I'm such a copy-cat) but didn't have enough pieces left. I used almost every scrap so I was quite pleased to have some purple quilting cotton just lying around. Seriously. I free-motion quilted it - only 2nd FM project ever and the first was just place mats - using purple machine quilting thread. (if you look very closely you will see where I did some wavy quilting down each strip - I'm slowly picking that out as I don't like it) It doesn't show up much but it was fun and I love purple. Oh, and the gecko - when I first posted the pic and called it Aruba Waves, my friend said it did remind her of Aruba but was missing the gecko. So I laid it aside for quite a while (and a move and family disaster along the way) until I remembered one odd night that I HAD the gecko - on the t-shirt I bought in ....wait for it.... ARUBA! It's quilted with warm and natural, I believe. That stuff makes my nose itch until it's all done so I need to find another batting for the next round.

It made a nice TV watching quilt - not too hot and a good size. It would be too small for a bed, though approaching twin sized.

I went shopping.

My son was discharged today, a couple of days ahead of plan. He's actually doing very well, pretty mobile, eating well. So after we drove home, stopped at McDonald's for some "real" food, dropped off his prescriptions, unloaded the car, and watched an episode NCIS I went back out and picked up a FedEx at the apartment office, went by Salvation Army, dropped off my carry bag to get repaired, picked up the prescriptions and stopped by JoAnn's. All in 2 hours, including NCIS and the drive from Royal Oak. Now, the $64M question. In that list, what stands out? Hmmmm? What did you see that you liked? Walgreens? Nah. Apartment office? Not hardly. Give up? Salvation Army? Yep!

When I was here a few weeks ago there was a nifty little Brother sewing machine there for $20. I talked myself out of it and regretted it. I went back to see if was, by any chance, still there. And no, it was not. But there was this, a Singer Merritt 8102. It runs smoothly, isn't too dirty, has the power cord and foot pedal and all my short shank attachments will fit it. A peek inside showed it wasn't very dirty and is more than adequately oiled (read: greasy). It was $9.99, worth it? I guess we'll see. I can't get it to make a stitch. I think it's threaded correctly. But I'm not sure I have the right bobbin in it. There was a plastic one in it, but I don't know if it's the right one. I found a threading guide and a bobbin insertion guide but not directions on bringing up the bobbin thread (though it looked "up") or what direction to put the needle in. I have it flat to the back, as my threading guide said to thread the needle front to back. But I have one real question. What are these? They are falling out of the foot pedal. A little shinier than the photo shows. Do they matter? Should I worry?

Back on the home front, we have borders. We didn't advertise room for rent and I suppose that's ok, since they are PAYING any rent. But they have moved in. We've taken it down a number of times, but if we leave the garage door open for even a few minutes Robin starts working on it again.

I feel really badly. She's found, in her opinion, the perfect spot. No cats can reach it. It's warm, no need to obsess about sitting on the eggs.
Oh, and one more photo. Sweet..... (from DC Cupcakes, as seen on TLC - tastes as good as it looks, um looked)

Totally Geeked

Thanks for all the comments (looove the comments) about my class with THE KING. Kenneth, that is. Everyone knows that Elvis is truly gone. I am totally geeked about the class. Meeting him - he's also going to be at the Pattern Review booth for chatting, learning what he has to teach. My attitude towards classes did a complete about face in April when I took the "Get to know your machine" class at my dealer. I learned so much and was amazed at how much I was able to learn in just a few short hours. I know THE KING isn't magic (or is he?????), but I'm sure to walk away with some, well, cool tricks.
Same with Sandra Betzina, who has been my secret BFF (sorry, Karen) since I discovered her fly front video. It rocks.
Don't worry, peeps, I won't forget you or my humble beginnings once I'm hob-nobbing with the sewing elite (and a few hundred of my "closest friends"). I'll be sure an report back. Did I mention I was stoked about this?
If you're going to be in Novi next weekend, leave me a comment (yes, I will do anything for a comment. As Cmarie says, I'm a comment 'ho. A starving one at that). I'd love to meet you or at least recognize you if I see you. I'll be wearing the SG heart. And carrying too much stuff, with my now big head from meeting KK in the clouds. You can't miss me.
Betsy, your mother's scarf is safe, KK will be providing strips for those of us without access to the NYC shopping district. Whew, good news, there, eh?
In other, um quilting, news. I'm STILL fighting the same 2 strips. They are very narrow: 3/4" cut, so only 1/4" finished and I can't get them straight enough for nothing. Especially #11 (Remember #12 was the center and starting point). In places I only have about 1/8" showing. Looks like crap. Going to rip it out AGAIN **sigh**. I'm going to recut (again) adding some width for error. A little wider and cleaner would look better than this wonky, bunched up mess that I'm too mad about to photograph. The first half looks so good to have the second half all mucked up.

Playing Hookie

Shhhh! I'm going to play a little hookie tomorrow and do some fabric shopping with a couple of on line friends (my husband calls them pretend friends, but I'm pretty sure they're real people). We're going to Mekong River and G Street. Then lunch and then they'll make a run to Michaels (A Fabric Place) while I go back to work for the afternoon. Film at 11. Of some day.

Short Weekend

I can't believe it's Sunday night already. Maybe Saturday afternoon, but not Sunday night.
I got my haircut yesterday morning. I knew I was past due, but when the salon looked me up they said I was last there in June. That would be 2008. Yeah....
Then we spent the afternoon - ALL afternoon - looking at houses in Maryland. Lots and lots of Maryland houses. In the rain. Lots and lots of rain. But, as I was told, at least we could eliminate any with leaky basements.
I did make it to JoAnn's in Columbia, MD. I will give that one a thumbs up - for a JA's. It was clean, well stocked, organized and they had 3 cutters and still the lines were LONG. So long that I didn't buy anything that required cutting, W was with me and he has zero patience for anything fiber related - I only had the time he spent next door buying maps (of Howard County, MD, duh...) . The place was packed - mostly in the sewing area. I'd forgotten that JA's is a Viking dealer. And they have an EXCELLENT selection of feet. Like all of them... And they were all in stock. And the sales lady was nice and knew her stuff. I was restrained - I only bought one - but then I just bought on-line and from the dealer (where are the red-faced icons when you need one?) . I got a box to put my feet in and labeled it today, in a small fit of organizing (aka avoiding finishing the taxes). Um, and a quilting ruler that I put to good use today. And the batting for my quilt, a cotton/poly blend. But still no backing for it. That was all the fun stuff, unless you are a safety pin fan. Oh, and I FORGOT the elastic for my skirt. Yeah, the real reason I went in the first place. It was on my list and everything. I blame the feet, I'm easily distracted by shiny things.
I have finished sewing all my quilt strips, cut all the strips into squares and sewn 2 blocks. LaurieH over on SG suggested that I should add a more solidy (tone on tone-ish) fabric into my quilt. Well, it was too late on this one, but I will definitely follow her advice on the next one. I'll post some pictures tomorrow evening, and you will see that the busy-ness needs breaking up. It is definitely still okay, but a calmer stripe would have been a wise choice. Thanks LaurieH! That's why I LOVE the Internet.
And that's the whole weekend. Seriously. Oh, and I did some laundry.

BeeBee's Best day off

My company has a "flex plan" where, theoretically, I get every-other Friday off. I say it's flex because I'm frequently flexible about actually taking it off. But today it all fell together: Day off, DH out of town, nice weather. A trifecta!

To start, as promised, I took my Pfaff to the dealer. Apparently it's out of balance? Hmmm, that makes two of us, I suppose. But it will be 10 days to 2 weeks before it comes back, they're behind in repairs because they just moved (nice new digs, I might add - they added a beautiful new classroom).

Then I went to the bank (yeah, edge of the seat stuff), Hancock's and Office Max. It was all good. I'll spare you the bank, nothing of interest there..

Ah, but Hancock's had a nice after inventory sale and all their Olfa supplies were 30% off. I've been kicking around the rotary cutter thing for a while, and the pinking shears discussion on SG this week really pushed it forward. And then the pretty red 30% off sign clinched the deal. I bought a medium sized mat, a cutter and extra blades to get the pinking blade. I played with for a while making some fun cuts, straight and wavy: and then moved on. I also found some decent fabrics. They had some quilting cottons that will make some nice blouses or skirts this summer for $1.95/yard: The blue color is pretty true, the red is really closer to a dark purple and brown. They also had this pretty rayon for 2.99 yard. It's really a dark green and white. Very soft and drapey for summer. And finally a piece of lining for 1.95/yard that just went really well with a purple cotton/rayon blend I washed last night to prep. (Maybe BWOF Jan 09 #111?) I would have found something in stash, but this was perfect - actually much better than it shows in the picture. It isn't really that pink, more deep purple and fashion fabric (from G Street? I REALLY need to start a system) is almost a blue, and really drapey after washing.

I didn't photograph anything from OfficeMax - though I'm sure you're dying to see my printer cartridges. But I bought a few drafting tools to try with tracing BWOF, etc. I'll fill you in later - likely tomorrow.

Then I had my favorite lunch, cheese quesadilla at Baha Fresh. YUM!

I was back home by 1 and ready to sew. Since my Pfaff is being repaired it was time to do some re-bonding with my Singer 201. And let me say, it didn't take long. It was like riding a bike. Like sewing used to be. I thought it was me, that I was incapable of making a straight seam, of sewing without ripping. Well, I sat down with the skirt I cut out in a frenzy a few weeks ago and finished (butceptfer the hem, and it's already folded up 1/4", and a hook and eye). This is a "skirt length" from G Street - I'm sure about this one. I cut out the lining with my new rotary cutter in about 5 minutes. Like I said, I started around 1:30 with cutting the lining, it's 7:15 now and I've been done for about an hour. Agreed this is a simple pattern that I've made before, but this was still just freakin' FUN! No fighting the machine, struggling with stitches and the only seam I ripped out was some basting at the waist when I decided to add belt carriers. I used the slidey zipper foot for the first time ever and got a perfect result. Do I see a blind hem in my future? And, because it was such a good day, and I did such a nice job, you guys get a treat that you've had only once before. You get to see the INSIDE of my garment. Usually, they look too bad to show, but this one turned out nice (Yeah!!! new cutter!!!!)

But all this didn't come without a price. Part of that 1/2 hour or so between coming home and starting sewing was spent in cleaning up sewing room. It was nice and tidy, the desk was clean (Pfaff wasn't there, so I wiped it down), all the fabric was folded, the Singer was tucked in its cabinet. Well, here's the end of the day. **sigh**

Well, the dog's been fed, my sewing room's trashed, and TLC is calling. It's time to sit down with a glass of wine and watch some mindless TV. Cheers.

Mom's Quilts

Mother-in-law, not my mom. Anyway, I've mentioned this before and finally took some pictures and put them together for you. My MIL is an avid quilter and has been virtually all her life. She has a number of hand pieced tops that she works on - only in the winter. She says its too hot to do in the summer. All her work is hand pieced and hand quilted. She even puts the binding on by hand. She has a large hoop she work with in her lap. She does everything in white quilting thread. There was a brief discussion on SG a little bit ago about why she likely does this. And the experienced quilters agreed with her that it was the sturdiest thread to use - that dark colors sometimes didn't stand the test of time.

This one she calls "Widow's Trouble", though I've heard it called other names as well. She and her mother pieced it when she was around 13 or so. She quilted it much more recently, about 15 years ago. I think after my son was born. There was actually a little of a family fight over this one. I won when I quit. My SIL stayed to argue, I decided I was only an in-law and should keep my mouth shut. And the next Christmas, there is was. She said as a "thank you" for helping them out around the house, etc. Here is a little closer up of some the detail. These were taken with my older camera, so the photo's aren't quite the same quality as the more recent ones. It is backed with a matching yellow sheet. This is the one we had the thread discussion over. We (DH and I) thought she should quilt it in yellow on the black and black on the yellow. It's all done in white quilting thread.

This next one is one she did very recently (to my knowledge) for my son for his birthday last year. It may have been pieced before (some of the fabrics are very dated - see if you can find which ones). It's a simple bow-tie quilt, but I think it's really pretty with the bright colors. Again it is all hand stitched, including the binding. It is backed with a white sheet.

There are some more photo's of this one down the page. It is now on the guest bed (where I sleep) at my son's apartment.

Some close up detail of her stitching.

On the bed.

This one she and my Sister-in-law did when I was pregnant. SIL did the needlework and MIL quilted. My son still has this one, too. It's his, they made it for him.

It may have been from a kit, I'm not certain, though I am certain the quilting was done free hand.

This one has lost a lot of loft over the years. When it was new it was really fluffy, but that was 20 years ago.

And finally, this one she gave us for Christmas last year (2007). This, again, was all done by hand. She did the cross-stitching on it, as well. I'm not sure if it shows on this limited photo, but she missed a few places in the design. She's not as young as she used to be. The back is a white sheet and it is, of course, quilted in white thread.

The pillow is one I made years ago (oh, yeah, I do home dec - when I have to) and the mouse trap keeps the dog off the furniture - and looks nice, too.

I think she uses all poly batting, they're too light to be cotton and too fluffy when new. My son has one more, very simple one from a pre-stamped fabric - trains - that she quilted around. She did it when he was little for his "big boy bed". I didn't get a picture of it. Yeah, he gets all the quilts.

If you have any questions, I'll answer as best I can or ask her. I think she does incredible work. I don't have the patience for the piecing or quilting or the desire to drag that mass of fabric around. So I admire her all the more for doing this.

Thanks for looking.

A Rant and a Rave

First the rant. If you've followed along for the past year, you'll have gathered that I really struggle getting my Pfaff to do button holes. To the point that I start to sweat when it comes times. I've had so many really bad ones, spent so many hours picking them out and even wadding up an almost finished garment. Well, here's the latest mess. First the trial. Not too bad, if you don't care that they don't really start and stop at the same place (look at the tops), so I can't use any of the keyhole or rounded templates. Only the straight ones, so they still work. Anyway, I thought I was as good to go as it was going to get. Here's the real one. On my trousers. With the waist band attached and top stitched. Seriously, I almost cried. I still might. I'll try to pick this mess out. And maybe try again with the Singer. WHY!!!!!????? It started at the right, worked to the left, straight stitched up to the right and then zig-zagged 3/4 of the way back and finished off. (if it seems backwards, this is the underside, it shows better in the lighter bobbin thread) DAMN IT!

And my rave, as a follow-up to last night's tracing paper. I promised Kathryn I would confirm whether the Beinfang paper will bleed through a Sharpie. That's be "no". None. Here's my amazing art work. I'll be incredibly humble and decline any requests for commissions. Sorry. And here's the paper I put underneath This is a really cheap absorbent made for kid's art paper from Ikea. You don't see nothing do you? That's be point. Not one mark went through. Now I didn't have a wide Sharpie (isn't that an oxymoron?) but mine are new and, well, juicy. And I held them in place for a few seconds a couple of times. BUT they will smear if not given a few seconds of alone time. And yes, for those of you who are interested, yes, that IS permanent marker on my finger and yes, it is still there after washing my hands.

And finally. Thank you all who left such positive messages concerning both my son and Stem cell research. I was afraid to post this, afraid I would loose followers, that I would blasting messages concerning abortion, GW Bush and where I am likely to spend eternity. I received only positive messages, I didn't delete a single one (if you're keeping score). I am touched by all your comments and proud to call you all my friends. THANK YOU!

Back to Burda

Ok, back to a little sewing. I've been quite infatuated by BWOF recently. I was using a roll of exam paper compliments of Lunesta and BFF for tracing off the patterns. But it was still a little difficult to see thru, though the resulting pattern is quite durable. I like that. But it's almost gone. A thread on SG http://artisanssquare.com/sg/index.php/topic,5806.0.html mentioned Bienfang tracing paper. I decided to give it a try. It came today and I wanted to share how cool this stuff is, my first thought was there wasn't much on the roll. It just didn't look like much, until I rolled it out. Then I was quit impressed. You can see here how easy to see through this is. How much easier it will be to find a line and follow it. It's pretty neat stuff and I can't wait to start tracing! Yeah, I may need professional help. You can see where I've outlined this piece and even where I used my tracing wheel, it has the dots. I like the yellow, it's easy to distinguish from the white paper. Not as tough as exam paper, but sturdier than pattern tissue. I've heard Sharpie won't bleed though, I'll have to let you know about that.
And I realized when I was making these pictures that I had my own little World of Burda: My Decembre (en francais) was right there, the new roll of tracing paper, the skirt from ?? November?? issue and my next pants from December. (fabric from Michael's). So I made a picture of it to share. And my really cool glasses from Target. Lovely, aren't they. I got 3 for $10, yeah baby.

I worked on the slacks over the weekend. Almost done, finish the waistband, button hole and hem. So, what, another couple of weeks? Want to finish tomorrow night. I lined this pair as the fabric has a major itch thing going, and I just like they way they wear better. I wore the grey ones today. They need a couple of hand stitches around the zipper, but otherwise I'm quite pleased. They fit sooo well. All these BWOF slacks are the best fitting items in my closet. My technique is improving, so it's getting better. BWOF tops, not so good, I haven't done well there.

Kacy says "Goodnight" See the baby gate behind her? 70# Dobe and she's contained by a 2' gate we lean against the door.

Rice Buddies

There was some chatter at SG about rice bags this week and I've been thinking about making some for a while before. I finally got around to doing this today.
First, I want to show you my really cool bag of rice. You can't see it, but there's even a zipper right above the purple line on top and a little carry handle.This is apparently what happens when you send your husband to the store for rice. It came from Safeway, which is in an ethnic neighborhood where he gets his hair cut, so I knew they would have rice by the bag. I don't know what I'll end up doing with it, but I love it. On another fun note, the barber shop was celebrating Chinese New Year and were treating all the customers a catered lunch and they were dressed in their best native clothing. Sorry I missed this.

I turned about 8 of this 10 pounds into rice buddies and pattern weights. I had some scraps left from the PJ's and thought this would be a good use for them. Here's the whole kit and caboodle. The small and oddly shaped ones are meant as pattern weights, the official rice buddies are the one at the top and top right. I made them a bit fancier. This was a lot of fun and I used up all the penguin fabric that makes me smile, so I'll get to smile more. Can't beat that.

And speaking of the PJ's, they're finally done. They' turned out pretty cute. I'm happy with them. Not pleased beyond words, but they're cute and much better than old sweat pants and a tee shirt. I detailed the trials and tribulations of the sleeves in a previous entry, and here's the neckline. I did do the green binding. It turned out ok considering I've never made my own binding and this fabric was a PITA to work with. And it doesn't look as wonky on as it does in the picture. I used a double needle at the edge of the binding with green in one needle and blue in the other. Pretty cool, eh? I really like the way it finished the inside edge. Click the image to enlarge. I used December BWOF #113. It makes a nice sleep shirt, but I wouldn't make a real shirt, it's really big - droopy under the arms and too wide. And I cut the smallest size.

AND I finished the Burda Slacks from the December issue. They've been hanging out in my sewing room for a long time waiting for the hemming. Took me all of about 5 minutes to do it. No excuses. I lightened the photo so you can see some of the detailing. Mostly I want you to see the awesome zipper. Compliments of Sandra Betzina, this is the prettiest and easiest fly zipper I've ever done and am no longer afraid of zippers. In fact, I cut another pair out today from some Italian (Zegna maybe, I have my doubts) wool from Michael's from BFF and my trip up there last February.

Oh, and I broke my Sewing Machine foot. Actually, I don't think I broke it - I didn't hit it or bump it or anything. It's broken. The T foot with plastic front. The plastic broke from the tip of one. It still works, but will snag some fabrics, so I have to find a new one. This pic is complements of SewVacDirect. I may just order form them while I have the site up. This is a Janome foot and my machine's a Pfaff, but a drop in bobbin without the IDT.

I still have one UFO - an unhemmed skirt. I'll likely do that tomorrow.

And I made up for no pictures from the last few entries.

Just a quick update

If you read SG, you'll know I'm (a) not fluent in French (b) not the sharpest needle in the pack (yeah, I've been waiting to use that one for a while). I'm working on the PJ top, which is BWOF 113 from Dec 08. It's the issue Zoubida sent me from Canada and it's in French. Because it's in French (ignore the pictures on sheet on page 14, please. They're just for show, not for real usage by stoopid Americans) I missed that the sleeve is in 2 pieces (yeah I KNOW there's a picture, I get that now!) , so I have to go back and trace out piece 4 (I think or 3, I should check that) and then cut the rest of the sleeve. And I was really cooking along, too. And I'm a little stumped on the order of the sleeve construction: sleeve pieces to shirt and then sew together? Or put the sleeve together and then put it on the shirt? I THINK (I'll check SG tomorrow for the real answer), bottom of sleeves, sleeves to shirt, top of sleeves. What do you think?

And I'm not sure what they recommend for the neck finish. I'd like to do a binding out of my green polk-dot, but not sure the fabric will handle it.

Speaking of fabric, I am truly digging this nice knit from (probably ) G Street. It's a beefy, really stretchy navy that's just going together great. No curling - I thought it would based on my washing of it, it might after it's washed again. But then it's sewn together, who cares? And I can stretch it to sew without it loosing width. I need more of this stuff (yes, see the stash topic below. whatever.)

Well, I'm off to the shower. Enough sewing for one night. I got all the neck pleats done and the side seams finished. What more do you want for a week night? And besides, I have to get up and be the only person at work in the DC area tomorrow.

BeeBee is short for Burda Butt

Yep, I bet you all thought it had something to do with my name, or a nickname, or a pet or ... Nope, I think it stands for Burda Butt.

I finished (FINALLY) the Marlene trousers. The ones started way back in November, to wear to Thanksgiving? The ones with the stupid zipper. Only shear Irish-red-headed stubbornness made me finish these $%)(*&!#! things. In reality they turned out better than I anticipated. I gave up the buttons and just put 2 hooks and eyes on the waist band. The zipper, though all mucked up, doesn't gap, so I can sit down and it looks ok. So, if I wear them with an untucked top - my usual anyway - they will fine for weekend wear. Made out of soft, fluffy corduroy, they really aren't dress stuff anyway. I gave them the world's fasted hem job, ever. Edge stitched the bottom and just sewed the hem. No 1/4" fold, no blind hem stitch. Just done. And hanging in the closet. But, my butt looks great in these things. I made them straight off the pattern sheet, the only change was in lengthy. While I may have a German shaped ass, I certainly don't have German long legs!


Buoyed by this experience and having finally figured out my cultural error, I was ready to attach a more "traditional" pair of Burda slacks from the December issue. The one I have in French. My cultural issue - other than not reading French very well - was the European vs American placement of the "," and the "." in numbers. A fellow SG'r sent me the measurements for the waistband, but I stewed over this for a while because I couldn't figure out what to do with the ,5. When the light bulb finally came on (no, that wasn't an electrical storm over Northern Virginia, just me remembering French nomenclature) I was ready to go. I traced out the pattern and made a quick trial (not really a muslin, as there was never any intent to do major alterations, just to check for reasonability before I cut my fabric) and stitched it up on Friday afternoon. Again, right of the sheet, and I was ready to go. Saturday morning I cut the real deal out of a "pants length" - about 2.5 yards for $12.99 from GStreet - woollen mix. I finished - except hemming and it's ready to do - them yesterday. I'll post photo's later, but my 2 issues are: my fabric was a little to lightweight for this. I will re-do in a heavier wool, this stuff was pretty drapey. And I think the waist is a little too high on me. I'm not a fan of the slow slung slack, but I get a small wrinkle about mid-hip that I think is from the waist/hip height ratio. I'm long waisted/short legged and suspect that my hips are short (huh?) too. Next round - and yes there will be a next round very soon - I will crop off about an inch (maybe less?) from the top at the waist band - maybe just wider seam allowance. I think his will help.


I was very pleased with my work on these. I finished all the seams - edge stitched. Only pulled out one line - the top stitching on the zipper was wonky the first time. My buttonhole is a thing of beauty (thank you, Singer 201). I used the tutorial referenced a couple of posts down for the fly zipper. Sandra Betzina is a god(dess). Seriously. That tutorial is great. She uses contrasting fabrics/zippers/threads so you can see what she's doing. She moves thru it fast enough to not start skipping parts. She explains, quickly, why she does certain things and how to do them easily. First time in and BEAUTIFUL! Seriously, I may quit my day job and put zippers in for a living, now. From an absolute dissaster last time to a work of art. Sandra, baby, I love you (I'll even share - not give you - my Bud Light). Watching her turtorial was the push to go back to the Burda mag and have my nominclature flash of inspiration.


I also cut out a skirt - same pattern as the JCC skirts (I can hear you snoring!, but my fabric was limited) that I will whip together tonight - I need to find some lining fabric, though. This is a skirt length wool from GStreet - about a yard+ - for $6. Black with very small, subtle windowpane weaving.


AND I bought and washed the fabrics for a pair of PJ's. Inspired by some I saw at American Eagle or A&F (don't remember for sure) I saw over Christmas. And I pulled some knit out of stash for the top. I may cut out tonight, rather than sew the skirt. DH may be out of town and I cut better with him not around - I use the kitchen table. Then I can sew for a few days. This fabric was picked up at Hancock's at 50% off on an emergency run on Saturday night. I (thought) I was out of black thread. Who runs out of black? And my slacks and next skirt are black. So, out in the rain I went. It gave me the opportunity to pick up a Vogue for a friend at only $3.99, they won't be back on sale for a while according to the flyer. BTW, I did find the black thread, it was threaded on my Singer, under the Marlene pants. But now I have tons, it was 1/2 off, too. And white, if you're interested.


AND I cleaned up my sewing room. Really cleaned it up, wiped down the surfaces, vacuumed up the fuzz, brushed out the machines, put all the magazines in their boxes (and found my SM Manual), put the buttons in a box that will now close, and hung up the jacket that I'm never going to alter.


Yes, the mojo has returned! The failures of fall '08 are behind me (or actually, crammed on a shelf that I studiously avoided in my cleaning frenzy) and I'm SOO ready for 2009.

And, because I have no other photo and thought you might be as tired of cold and winter as I am, I give you Aruba: