Progress!

I have been busy: finished my crepe polka dot skirt (BWOF 08-2005-130)


and started and finished my next project, a pair of capripants (BWOF 07-2007-108A), which was surprisingly quick and easy! Check out some pics:




I have a faint idea of what´s next on my sewing list. I need some shirts and tops to go with those capri pants and I have plans for a pair of navy shorts from a crepe.
I have pulled some blue knits and a navy pique from the stash and will go pattern searching possibly tonight.
Knittingwise, I get a couple of rounds on my Pomatomus in every day and I´m almost to the heel on the second sock, but it´s slow going. I guess when it get´s cooler, I´ll get the knitting mojo back.
Cheerio

The cabinet hasn´t fallen down yet...

it´s still hanging!
I managed to get some sewing done today: my polka dot crepe skirt has it´s lining attached, the buttonholes made and the buttons sewn on! All that´s left is the hem of the skirt and the lining. I´m going to do a chiffon hem on the crepe fabric and a "normal" turned up hem on the lining. Pics tomorrow.
I also finished taking the pictures of my fabrics. I rearranged them in my closet and uploaded the pics to flickr. Now, I´ll continue working on my storyboard. I need to decide on a matching top for the skirt.

After I finish my skirt, I´ll finish my green wrap dress (just needs a hem and the ties attached!).

For my vacation at the beginning of August I will be making a pair of shorts out of a navy blue polyester crepe and a pair of capri pants out of a navy blue stretch cotton with white polka dots. Then I need some tops to go with them. I have already found some suitable jerseys in my stash. I´ll be making some basic shirts, probably just one pattern with neckline variations (scoopneck, v-neck, boatneck). Tomorrow is my ma´s birthday, so I won´t be getting much done and after that, I really need to work on my presentation for the paper I have to present on July 17th...
But after that, there will be lots of holiday sewing!

Cheerio

No sewing of late

Yeah, the title says it all! My birthday was on saturday (Independence Day), so happy birthday to me. I didn´t throw a huge party, instead just said that whoever wanted to come over was very much invited to do so. We ended up with about 15 people on the patio for hamburgers and beer, which was really nice and not as stressfull as my parties the last couple of years with 25-35 guests. Don´t get me wrong, that´s nice too, but this year I just wanted to go low key.
Anyway, I had planned on making sunday a sewing day, but the last guests left at 5am and we cleaned up after that, because we hate waking up to a messy house and patio! So we got to bed at 6am. To say I was a little sleep deprived and hung over the next day is the understatement of the year! There was no way at all I could have sewed a single straight seam!
Today, I got the shock of the century: I was working in my office (at home) and all of a sudden there was a loud crash followed by smashing sounds. I ran to the kitchen to find our big hanging cabinet (chock full with our everyday china and coffee mugs and glasses) hanging totally crooked because the hanger on one side had ripped out of the wood! It had fallen onto a little shelf we hung under that cabinet that holds potholders and seran wrap and such. So this huge heavy cabinet (as I mentioned before) full of breakables was basically held up by a tiny wooden shelf, not ment to hold up lots of weight! After I got my pulse back under control, I went about assessing the damage: this cabinet has a glass door in the middle and the sides are open. On the side that slipped down, there was a really nice and new tea set a flower pot filled with the usual cr*p like lighters, matches, rubber bands and the likes. This pot was basically the only thing that fell to the floor, all that cr*p was spread all over the kitchen floor, but the pot was only chipped a little! I couldn´t believe it!!! Nothing (!!) else was broken. I kept expecting the whole thing to just crash as soon as I started clearing the cabinet, but it held up and I was able to take everything out. My mom came by my kitchen window as I was doing this and after recovering from the shock, she helped me dismount the monster from the wall. We just stood there laughing our butts off, because I was so lucky...
Well, a girl has got to have some luck sometimes, right??? The only thing I forgot was to take a picture as this would have been great blog fodder!!!
Oh boy was the boyfriend in for a shock, when he came home from work! Having a man around who is handy with the tools really helps. In no time at all, he had fixed the problem and an hour later, the cabinet hung on the wall again, slightly less loaded! ;-))
There went my sewing time for today. What I did manage to do, is take pictures of a part of my fabric stash and upload them to flickr. Tomorrow, I´ll take more pictures. My goal is to catalogue all my fabrics on flickr with a description and how many metres I have of them. I also started a spreadsheet of my fabrics. Here, I want to be able to keep track of the money I spend on fabric and notions, as well as the amounts in stash and then used. Then, I started a storyboard, not of a particular SWAP, but just matching my fabric pictures with pattern pictures. These are subject to change, of course, but it was becoming necessary to write my ideas down, because I was starting to become overwhelmed by the possibilities!
Sewingwise, I´m still working on the red polka dot crepe skirt. Hope to get it done tomorrow! I have been trying to UWYH (use what you have) fabricwise, but just before my birthday I fell hard... an order from FFC, that the boyfriend gave me for my birthday, then a huge order from Stoffe.de and today an order from Gorgeous Fabrics. This is definitely the last order for a long time, but I needed some fabrics to match the new pair of shoes I just bought, a pair of purple suede platform lace up heels. Can´t find a picture of them on the net, so I´ll have to take one tomorrow. They are awesome, but I was in desperate need of some purple knits and shirting for tops to go with the shoes. These tops, worn with black or grey pantsuits, will be perfect for these shoes!
Anyway, now that I´ve got all my bases covered, I won´t be buying fabric for a while. Gotta give the wallet a rest now...
Whew, looong post, it´s late and I´m beat!
See ya!

Slow going

Geez, I´m pathetic right now. Knitting consists of a couple of rounds on the couch in the evening and sewing my skirt (btw, it´s not chiffon, it´s a crepe, my bad) is taking forever. I´m doing french seams on it, because I´m afraid they are going to start unraveling and I really want to do this right.
It is so hot and stuffy here, I wish it would cool down a bit, but it doesn´t look like that´s going to happen any time soon.
More news tomorrow, I´m beat.

Just thinking...

I have been thinking lately about trying to take my sewing to a higher level. Reading some great blogs like this or that have really gotten me thinking about high quality sewing and not just finishing for the sake of having something merely wearable and also vintage patterns. A while ago I bought these books, just sort of looked through them and put them away. Over at PR I saw that they were offering a Couture Hand Sewing Class and just for the heck of it, I signed up, not really into it all that much. The class and the books didn´t touch me until this morning over coffee. See, last night I cut out a new skirt (BWOF 130-08-2005). I´m using a red polka dot chiffon
(the top fabric) and I didn´t know what to for a hem. Stumped, I opened the aforementioned books and started reading.
I´m going to try doing this "right". And vow to sew higher quality garments and put more of an effort into it.

Time flies

Geez, where do the days go??? It´s already been three weeks since my last post. I started getting back into knitting. I cast on and knit the first Pomatomus. I´m using Chewy Spaghetti - Spaghetti in Vintage (Can´t post a link to my Ravelry page because they´re down, maybe tomorrow) I´m past the ribbed cuff on the second one, but it´s slow going because of all the sewing I´ve been doing. I haven´t uploaded all of the pictures and I can´t find my camera right now, but I´ll do that tomorrow.
In other news, my "baby brother" has his "Abitur" (german high school diploma). He did pretty well considering that a mere two years ago I wouldn´t have bet anything on him finishing at all! So congrats little bro!

Some more positive news: I passed my paper! Yeah! Have to admit, I was a tad worried, because I didn´t put as much effort into it, as I should have. Now I just have to present it to the group in july. Sunday I´ll start work on the presentation. I´m not sure whether I should use the overhead projector or my notebook with Powerpoint. I´ll have to mull over that a bit more. We´ll see.

I´ve lost my knitting mojo

but my sewing mojo is plowing ahead at full speed.
The zipper didn´t arrive in time, which wasn´t a problem, because I just put in a large and chunky one I had on hand. The look isn´t perfect, but not too bad!


Here´s a full view:


a closeup of the back belt:


and here we´ve got a closeup of the pleats:


I wore it last saturday to the party and got a couple of compliments. I felt good wearing it, so I´ll definitely wear it again!

Yesterday I started cutting my next fabric for the next project. I have cut the interfacing and the fabric and basted all of the interfacing to the fabric. Still need to cut the lining, but I´ll be doing that, when I need it. I want to go back to my new machine, which I love!!! I´ll be showing pictures tomorrow. I need to go to bed!