Busy sewing day.

First, I want to say that I'm not an iron snob. Nor do I really dislike ironing. And I don't have to have a fancy steam generator and table sized surface, but this really just wasn't working for me. Nor was this the solution. In fact, this picture was taken just before that cheap-ass iron puked some kind of red stuff all over the white shirt-in-the-making on the left. Not a good start to the day. So I packed up myself, the orange purse in the upper photo, and my 40% off JoAnn's coupons and fixed the situation. Now I know this isn't a high-tech set up, but it's a vast improvement. I was able to put the new board on the edge of the table and it gave me a great height to work on. The iron is a Rowenta that gets nice and hot and steams clean, clear water. I also bought color remover and got the red stuff off the shirt.

The shirt. I'm using New Look 6967 view B - the main photo on the left. Using the white embroidered cotton from JoAnn's 90% off sale. I'm now almost done lacking only hemming, sewing on the buttons and cutting open the buttonholes. I'm afraid to cut them using a seam ripper, so I'm procrastinating. The red stuff was on the left shoulder just beside the left arm hole (on the right in the picture). All gone. But the color remover did fade the piping on the arms a little. Well, better than a big old red stain. Take a look at my bitchin' buttons. You can see the fabric well, too.

My machine, the New Home, is doing great. It makes a 4-step button hole and did fantastic. And the poor tension issues are all better. THANK YOU!!! Kristine!! You rock. I love you, man. Now that the reverse is working this machine is beautiful. it makes great stitches, nice and even. My top stitching was easy. And the "B" foot has 2 grooves that worked great for the piping and invisible zippers (I didn't realize this on the dress, but I'm on to it now). I think it's finally fulfilling it's sewing destiny. I seriously don't think this machine had ever sewn a stitch before I rescued it from the Salvation Army. Some things are just meant to be.

My next project was going to be the See & Sew pattern again.

With the floral draped on the annoying ironing situation at the top of this rambling post. But after washing, drying, ironing the fabric and laying it out on the fabric I stopped short of cutting. It just wasn't right. I left it overnight to think on it. I think the repeat is too small and it was going to look goofy no matter how careful I was with matching up the pattern. I think I'm going to use the blue floral from Fabric Warehouse. I washed it today. It's a very lightweight (probably) poly with a definite retro feel to it. It will need lining, though.