Sewing for Me

Thank you Loretta at Fitting Tips for nominating me for the sisterhood award. I really appreciate this. I would like to nominate Sew Paula as she sews for her children of which one faces physical challenges, Sewing in the City who shares her sewing projects whether successful or not, Angie at Wendy & her Lost Boys, a mother of 6 who balances family life with being the wife of a minister far from home, & Teri at Mermaids who enjoys teaching & sewing. Each of these ladies so freely share their sewing knowledge with others & certainly deserve this award.

This week I got a chance to sew for myself. On Tuesday afternoon, I cut out viewA of Vogue 8536 in a blue matte jersey while at the church doing my sewing ministry. When I got home, I serged all of the edges & then did the construction on the sewing machine since the top had side vents & gathers in the bust area. It is really a nice top. It is very close fitting & I would have gone up a size had I known just how close. However, it fits okay & the next one I make will be the next size up. It felt good to have an opportunity to sew for myself for a change. I still have to add the neck binding & hem the T-shirt. My next project is a formal for one of my DD's college friends. Will post photos when they are done. Happy Stitching!

38 Years & Holding On ...

Last Friday, DH & I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary with dinner at our favorite steakhouse. As we talked (amid the chaos), I reflected on just how special my life is. I am so blessed in many ways. Who would have thought that the skinny, scared 17 yr old, out on her own & alone for the first time in New Orleans, would grow to become a confident adult with a loving husband who has grown with her thru the years. Being married takes a lot of work, a lot of give & take, & sacrifice. Thru it all, my love & respect for my husband has grown immensely. I can honestly say that I love him more today than on our wedding day. How lucky can a gal be.

New Sewing Goodies

While my eyes heal from an infection, I've been perusing the internet for sewing goodies. Some of the things I have bought recently included a cable for my Pfaff 7570 sewing/embroidery machine, "Cool Couture: Construction Secrets for Runway Style" sewing book by Kenneth King, a Fashion Design Ruler from SewTrue plus a DVD by Roberta Carr on Couture Techniques from CD Universe. I believe that all of these things will help to improve my sewing/embroidery skills. Also bought some new serger threads from Atlanta Thread Supply. DH surprised me by renewing my subscription to Threads magazine for another 3 years plus 2 years for Sew News & ordered Designs in Machine Embroidery for me as well as Creative Machine Embroidery magazines. It's been a lot of searching the internet for sewing goodies. So, what new sewing goodies have you tried?

Hemming Away ... by Hand

Business for my sewing ministry has picked up. I am becoming quite the expert at hemming pants for men & women who need this done. Because items are often dropped off for me to do with no real measuring of the person, I ask them to drop off something that fits well and I go from there. Recently, I have been hemming 5 pairs of pants for one person. All of them were different lengths and brand new. He brought in a pair of pants that fit him so I measured the inseam from those pants. I did note that the nylon hem from the blind stitch machine (probably a dry cleaners or alteration person at the store) had come out on one leg. I stitched those pants also. When I tried to put in a 3-4 inch hem, the fabric puckered so out came the stitching. I cut all of the pants down and then put in 2 inch hems. I don't know what the standard is for men's dress pants but this gave a smooth finish on the outside with invisible stitching. After determining the finished length and adding for the hem, I cut the fabric and then serged the edge, marked my 2 inch hem and then hand stitched the pants. So far this method is time consuming but it looks good. My DH approves. One of these days, I hope to become more proficient in using my blind hem foot where I can whip these out but I'm not there yet. Oh, one of these days I will be.

Valentine's Weekend

This weekend was wonderful. DH & I attended a new church mixer as we are helping to mentor a new young pastor as he starts a church in the Memphis area. We don't plan to leave our home church but are helping out for the time being. This weekend was the first event. I worked the registration table, hubby worked security and our daughter provided child care. It was a family event for us. We did have a candlelight luncheon that was catered by Coletta's Italian Restaurant. Hmmm...good. The highlight of my day was watching my hubby line dance for about 20 minutes with our daughter. He did pretty good for his first try since he claims to have 2 left feet. When we got home, DH gave me a small container of my favorite chocolates. Couldn't be more perfect than that. Then on Sunday, DH surprised me by renewing my Threads subscription for 3 years. I would say that was a good Valentine's day present. All in all, it was a great Valentine's Day weekend.

"The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard"

Had read a bit about this book in our local newspaper and thought the title was intriguing so I ordered the book from Barnes & Noble. It is a fascinating look at the early 20th century and the development of Los Angeles along with Hollywood. Young girls flee their families and farms in search of a dream. The main character is a young girl named Nell who is unhappily married at a young age (17) with 2 infants. She has worked on her parents farm and then on her husband's family's farm in rural Kansas. It is a hard life. Her only skill is sewing in which she excels. A visiting preacher tells her about California and she dreams of a better life for herself. Sewing for the town folk, she saves enough money to buy a train ticket to Los Angeles. Then she runs away from her husband and children. The story continues for the next 20+ years as she marries again and has another child. She sews for the high society ladies of Los Angeles and ends up with a job at Universal Studios where is a costumer. Just when her future is the brightest, her 2 older daughters turn up on her doorstep and turns her world upside down. The story does not have a happy ending. In fact, it leaves you wanting more from this author. According to the excerpt, the story is based on the author's grandmother's life. The author is Erin McGraw. I loved the book and read it over a weekend. Maybe there will be a sequel. I certainly hope so.

Crooked Sewing Adventure

As an active member of my ASG chapter (and president) it seems like most of my sewing is craft projects to learn new techniques or reinforce old ones. While I long to spend more time on garments, in reality, it is craft projects that actually make it to the machine. This week, I made my first quillow. When I started this, I had no clue as to what a quillow was or what one does with it. I went out and bought 3 yards of black fleece, packed my travel sewing machine & supplies and headed out to our meeting spot. Wouldn't you know it, I forgot black thread and had picked up navy blue by mistake. Duh!!!

Fortunately, one of my friends had a large spool of black quilting thread so I used that. Wound the bobbin, threaded the machine, and then read the directions over & over but they didn't compute. Must have had brain freeze or something like a senior moment or who knows what. Anyway, I just sat there trying to figure it out. Fortunately, one of my friends recognized my dilemma and offered to help me out. We folded the fleece, cut off the amount for the pillow, and started trying to even up the ends. Oh yeah, a quillow is a blanket with an attached pillow for those who do know this. We measured, lined up, and using a yard stick to guide me with a rotary cutter, I cut crooked. We tried again. Lined up, measured carefully, and then I cut crooked. For some reason, I've never mastered cutting straight lines even with yardsticks, lined mats, etc.

Grrr... Then my friend tried cutting the fleece and it was still crooked. We laughed and figured out that the fabric was off grain and would not cut straight. Oh well, since I see crooked, I cut crooked. This quillow will go to my DD and she won't really care if it is perfectly straight or not. Well, I went to the sewing machine to sew this quillow and the fleece would not feed straight which resulted in crooked seams. Took them out muttering under my breath. Tried this again and felt like it was done even if it was a little crooked. As we got ready to turn the quillow, found out that the fleece had slipped and one section of the pillow was not sewn to the blanket. I need a walking foot for my travel machine. Muttering again, I started to frogstitch the pillow. By then, the day was half over and all I wanted to do was go home. Trying a third time, I finally finished the quillow to the point that it was acceptable. Then I started stitching the edges in a red decorative stitch. Maybe I should have done that before attaching the pillow (ya think???). Got 2 edges done and called it a day.

When I got home and looked at it, I realized it looked like a first grader's project. It was not something I was proud of or would want others to know that I made. So, I put it away. Today, I'm frogstitching the decorative stitches as well as the pillow. I figure that if I sew it on my Pfaff with its IDF, maybe the fabric won't slip and my seams will be straighter. Also, I decided I want to add some embroidery to the pillow part and I'll need to frogstitch it to do that. Whether this quillow will be finished or not remains to be seen. For now, I'm going to go back and re-read some sewing books. Happy Sewing!