Tag: projects

Provence Smock finally finished.

And I love it!
This was supposed to be done for the first day of school.  Unlike the other two aprons I made last year, this one has half-inch binding instead of quarter inch.  I wasn’t paying attention when I bought and I couldn’t get back to the fabric store, so I rolled with it.  I like the quarter-inch binding better, but this is okay.  I adore the material, which looks like Portland in the winter, with the grey background and the colorful buildings and the bridges.  I think the pink ties everything together nicely.
And look at the fun buttons I got, which were half-off at Fabric Depot.

I had some trouble with the corner where the yoke joined the apron bottom.

If you turn your head sideways you can see this pocket detail.
There were many expressions of glee when I wore this to school.  I like all three of my aprons for different reasons, and I’m very excited to welcome this one into the fold.

Some finds at Fabric Depot…

…that stayed at Fabric Depot.
You have no idea how much the matchy-matchy part of me wanted to buy every single color and make 14 of all the same thing.  Fourteen!

I adored this turquoise and purple print.  I think it would make a fantastic shirt. Julie and her friend Olwin found it revolting, which means it’s perfect for me.

All three of us adored this coat, which was on display.

It meets all of my coat requirements which are:  thigh length, hood, hourglass, easy, can do autumn and winter.
Julie bought the pattern.  Now I only have to speed through my oh-so-many-projects so I can make this twice:  Once in heavy material for winter, once in something light for fall/spring.  Don’t hold your breath.
We also bought material for my shrug. It’s boring, but warm.  And I got buttons for my apron as well as the bias tape I need to finish that project.

U-Lock Bag


I keep my bike secure by using two U-locks, which I store in my bike basket.  Unfortunately, the metal U-locks combined with the metal bike basket produces a metallic rattle that takes away from the calm and silent nature of biking.  For years (YEARS!) I’ve dreamed of putting together a simple bag for my U-locks. 
Thanks to HabitRPG’s Seamstress Guild I have!  The challenge this month is to Make Something Simple. (a.k.a. the MSS Challenge). The thing I loved about this project is we had to make a Project Log, which could be something as simple as a piece of paper.  Then, you just write down daily what you did, even if the answer is nothing.  I found this to be tremendously motivating.  I don’t sew on weekdays (unless on vacation) because I don’t like having the sewing stuff on the dining room table all the time.  But by logging that on a Tuesday I “thought about bike bag” it seemed like I was working on my project all week long, which motivated me to drag out all the sewing stuff on the weekend.  Genius.
Here is my pattern.

I had some scrap dress material which I serged to finish the edges.  There are two layers here.

Pinning up the middle.

A visual of how the bag will hold the locks.

Locks in completed bag.

Tucked away.
Flap folded over.

And bag folded once more.

So it can nestle quite nicely in my bike basket.  And my ride is quiet once again.

Shrug Pattern

It’s grown cold and my work dress is short sleeved.  What to do with my cold arms?  Make three more dresses in a long-sleeved pattern?  Possibly, if I had more money and more time.  Instead, I purchased a pattern for a shrug from Jalie Patterns.

This is the first pattern I’ve bought from this pattern company, which is Canadian and has a lot of active wear. I will likely buy more because I liked that the pattern paper was high quality and the shrug was easy to assemble.  Process photos coming soon.

Progress on apron.

Sure it took me taking a personal day of vacation to finally get back to work on my apron.  But I did it.  I scheduled in “sewing” from 8-Noon and sewed for that entire time.  There was some seam-ripping (or “unsewing” as I’ve rechristened it.) and also I seem to have purchased half-inch bias tape rather than the quarter-inch the pattern called for, but I’m rolling with it.
Here’s where I ended up.

Moneta Work Uniform finished.

Here it is!  One of the three.  They sewed up very quickly and look great.  I’m very happy with them.

I dropped the bodice 1/2 inch in the front (this was on top of the half inch added to the other dress) and could have gone another half inch.  If I make this again I will knock an inch off the back.  Apparently there’s more front to me than back.  

I also made the sleeves about an inch longer.  There’s a point in on my arm that I feel more comfortable when it is covered.  And the front neckline is lowered about an inch too.  
You can’t really see the texture in the full body pictures, so here’s a close-up.  The fabric is a really great weight for this dress, it makes the skirt sway attractively when I walk.  But man does it snag.  I’m currently discovering the many opportunities for snags throughout my day.
In a random note, I don’t think my brother and I look very much alike, maybe a little through the eyes.  But there were about 10 photos in this series (I edited them down to two) and boy howdy did I have the same expression on my face as my brother.  It was weird.

Pop Up Project Finished. Capes

I’m visiting Heather in Kansas and she is the mother of two girls.  So I used those blue satin sheets from Goodwill and made capes.  (Don’t worry, I laundered the material before I got to sewing).
The pattern (found online)was a circle skirt, essentially. You cut two circles (four in my case) drafted a Peter Pan collar, sandwiched everything together, sewed, turned, and then stitched around the outside.

I bought buttons you could cover so they had matching closures and embroidered a monogram in each one.  I’m really happy with how these turned out.

Guess who wants to monogram everything she owns now?  Me! I see where Laverne had the right idea about that particular topic.

Here are my templates. I found a font I liked, blew up the letters in Word to the right large size, and then printed and sliced out the black part.  
And guess who still has an entire blue satin sheet left?  Did you guess me again?  You are correct.  I have notions of a circle skirt with a monogram.

Moneta Dress. Finito!

Man, this was a sewing win.  Big time.

I’m 39 years old with a BMI that puts me in the obese range.  I dress nicely when I am out and about because I think we should all dress nicely when out and about.  Still, after a certain age/weight, a female is pretty much invisible.
Not in this dress. The first day I wore it I got seven compliments.  SEVEN COMPLIMENTS!  From people I encountered along the way, from random passers-by in the street, seven people told me how much they loved this dress.  And I love it too.  The cut and the colors.  And the compliments.