A Successful Monday...

Well, for the most part. I am happy to say that I'm not longer deathly sick and was therefore able to work on some sewing! I sewed most of the Copper Half Sleeve Jacket but had to leave for a Phi Sigma Pi event before I finished it. I'm hoping to finish it before I go home for the weekend...It's a pretty crazy week though. It's my fraternity's second Rush week, so we have a lot of events where we try to get people to come out and learn about us and join! Tonight our event was a Play-Doh sculpting activity! It was lots of fun!

I also thought you might be interested in seeing my collection of letter clothing! This actually isn't up to date. The day after I took this photo I painted letters on a dress that I barely wear. Hopefully I'll wear it more now that it has letters on it!

In other news, I've discovered that Wal-Mart now sells 5 yard bolts of fabric for only $5!! So far I've bought three...One is a wine red synthetic fabric. It's hard to describe it, but it has a really nice suede like feel to it, and is pretty lightweight. The second one is a cotton print (a print!) with a cream colored background and red, green, and teal painted flowers on it. I plan to use these two to make a Halloween costume similar to this dress from The Patriot. If I have time, that is.

The other bolt is a synthetic fabric meant to be like chiffon. There were two the first time I went, but by the time I returned to purchase them, there was only the one left. I was originally planning a full length flowy ruched gown. Now I'm planning for a knee-length one. Maybe I'll get lucky and have enough for the long one, though. There are 5 yards, after all. This dress will be for the annual fashion show that the Black Student Union puts on at my college. I was in it last year, and they asked me to be in it this year as well. I only wear clothing that I've made in the show, and one of the segments is called "Fireworks." It's all about bright colors and such, and this "chiffon" is such a bright green (it's much brighter than the photo shows) that I think it would be perfect.

I'm sad to say that I have not yet finished the belt for the Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater. I will eventually. Phi Sigma Pi has been at the forefront of my mind this week.

Sick...

Well, today is supposed to be my day for sewing. Unfortunately, I came down with an awful cold yesterday and have since decided that today is for rest and drinking my body weight in water (well...maybe a little less than that...). I figured that would be a better idea than touching all my stuff and getting everything germy.

I know, I know, but what does this mean for my fashion line? However am I to finish everything if I keep missing my Monday workdays!? Never fear, my trusty readers; I did a lot of sewing on Saturday. Well, overcasting, really. I finished overcasting the pieces for the Wideleg Grey Suiting Trousers, as well as the Copper Half Sleeve Jacket. Both of these garments I'll be able to sew here, so I'm rather excited about that. Now I just have to wait until I'm healthy again.

In other news, I have finally finished knitting the second sleeve of the Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater. The only thing left now is to knit a belt. I'm already about 10 inches into it, so it shouldn't take too long. I was knitting that yesterday, so it's already germy. Pictures soon!

I also sewed together the pieces for the garment I wanted to make with my school t-shirts. I don't want to talk about it.

Also, my camera is broken. I still have no idea how it happened. If you could leave a message to my mom asking very nicely for her to reward me for my 4.0 during the summer semester with a new camera, I'd greatly appreciate it. Please and thank you!

Piece #9 and Outfit #3 Finished!

Well, it's about a week and a half late, but here it is! Now you can finally see my ninth garment. Holy crap, there's still so much farther to go...

Anyways, I'm pretty excited for my first three piece outfit (thanks to my roommate for unknowingly letting me use her full length mirror)!

I really like my sketch, although it seems clear that in the sketch the tank top fabric is much more fluid. The fabric I used is too stiff to get the right effect. The sweater is a bit bulkier than what I sketched, as well. I actually don't mind that difference, though. The sweater I made is SO WARM! I can't wait to wear it on a chilly fall/winter day!

I'm a bit disappointed at what happens when the entire outfit is worn together in real life. The silver tank is much longer than I thought it would be, which makes the shorts (and my legs) look rather squat and wide. The long shirt also hides the pocket details in the front and back. Definitely some thing I'll have to fix. All in all, the only thing I'm not happy with in this outfit is the tank top, which should be a relatively easy fix.

The shorts fit very well, although I had originally wanted a wider hem line than what I was able to get. I love the pocket!

I'm not even sure on all the stats on this one...

Total Hours Logged: 3 I think...it's hard to say since I had to stop for a week to get thread...

Fabric: 6oz denim, (I think the color was called "indigo") about 2 yards

Notions: a 7" metal zipper which I had to cut down to about 5", and 3 buttons which will make an appearance at some point

Cost: somewhere around $30

Yay for slow progress!

Such Distractions...

Man, is school ever busy! Not only are projects starting to pile up, but I was also recently made Initiate Adviser for my fraternity because the person who was voted into the position discovered that he was far too swamped. So for the past week I've been taking photos with a camera I made out of mat board, organizing the rush and initiation schedule, reading countless fairy tales, designing posters, and reading (like, actually reading) my anthropology textbook.

That's not to say that I haven't been thinking about sewing at all. Last week the campus held an organization fair to introduce the freshmen to the various club opportunities on campus. I sat at a table for my fraternity. At a table near ours was a huge pile of class T-shirts from the past years (2012-2014). I got ink all over my Class of 2012 shirt, so I jumped at the opportunity to get another one. The pile was only made of larges and extra larges, though, which brought a really fun idea to my head. Ever since Stumbling onto this webpage, I've been hoping for a large T-shirt or two to fall into my lap.

Except I picked up three. Just in case.

Pretty soon I should have a really great garment to show you that is made of one or all of these. If it turns out well, I might wear it to the Homecoming game and have school spirit for once!

Today I finally got to pull my sewing machine out again. When I did, I found it pretty easy to get excited about my project again (something I was worried would become an issue). Today I was able to sew and overcast the three remaining shirts; the Blue Cotton Long Sleeve V-neck Top, Blue Cotton Half Sleeve V-neck Top, and Black Cap Sleeve Cotton V-neck Top. I was also able to overcast the pieces for the Bootcut Lightwash Denim Jeans.

The current list of garments in limbo is now:

Silver Jersey Cap Sleeve V-neck Top

Long Sleeve Cotton V-neck Top

Silver Jersey Tank

Blue Cotton Long Sleeve V-neck Top

Blue Cotton Half Sleeve V-neck Top

Black Cap Sleeve Cotton V-neck Top

Bootcut Lightwash Denim Jeans

Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater

Off-White Hand Knitted Gown/Wedding Dress

This list (other than the last two garments, which I don't need another sewing machine to finish) really makes me want to get back home. Sadly, because of the recent flooding in my area, my mom is requesting that I give them more time to put the house back together before I try to go back and work. This makes complete sense to me, so I decided to start working on something I could sew here. I started overcasting the pieces for the Wideleg Grey Suiting Trousers, but stopped when the bobbin ran out, because it was getting late-ish and I didn't want to keep bothering my roommate. Plus, I was honestly getting tired of winding the bobbin.

In other news, I've slowly been adding to my Grey Modified Suiting Vest pieces. This is mostly to free up bobbins, since I only have four that fit into my Brother machine. Three colors in, this is how it's starting to turn out.

At the moment it looks like Superman's new intern forgot how to iron his vest. I keep wondering if adding more colors will make it look any better or if it will just continue to get worse and worse. I'm afraid that it's probably the latter. Should I give up on this and redesign the Grey Modified Suiting Vest and Grey Modified Suiting Sheath Dress? It's worrying me...

Also, in case you're interested, here's a close shot of the fabric I'll be using to reupholster my chair. It's a really neutral and dark looking purple. The suede is so soft! I'm also excited to get back home to continue this project.

Well, that's it for the updates! Have a fun week!

Slightly Late...

"Hello, all! I meant to post this on Monday, but with the beginning of classes and club meetings, it's been a little busy around here.

In case I haven't mentioned this yet (I'm really not sure if I have, and I don't feel much like checking at the moment), Mondays are my reserved sewing/knitting day, so that I have plenty of time to get my project done." [Written on August 31, 2011]

...My goodness, I began writing this post on Wednesday and completely forgot that I never finished! Well, I'm free now, so here I go. Holy crap, there's a lot to write about.

Within the realm of my sewing project, I stitched up the seams of three shirts a week ago (August 29), but had to stop there because Antoinette is the machine I prefer to do the hemming and finishing on the collars of knit garments. Those shirts are the Silver Jersey Cap Sleeve V-neck Top, the Long Sleeve Gold Cotton V-neck Top, and the Silver Jersey Tank.

I took these garments home this weekend so that I could finish them, but in the midst of the holiday weekend (yay labor day!), a family picnic, another baby shower for my sister-in-law from my dad's side of the family, and a rather large, last minute project which I'll discuss in a bit, there was not much time left for me to finish them. I also had too bake cookies with my niece, Hannah. Where could I have ever found time to sew three shirts!?

I did get another piece done, but that will be discussed in a later post.

School is going quite well so far, thank you for asking. We're doing pinhole photography in my Advanced Photography class right now, so my family was quite surprised to find out that I was taking a time-lapse photo of the picnic (hopefully I'll get something good to show them at Thanksgiving, or whenever I see them next).

The rather large last minute project that I mentioned is for my Advanced Typography class. I want to keep the full idea of it a surprise, but it involves type (obviously), fairytales, and a lovely wingback chair that I picked up at my local Salvation Army for $35.

Yes, I know; "lovely" is not necessarily the best word to describe this thing, but the structure of the chair is still in great condition (although my father says that it could be around 100 years old), and I fully intend to reupholster it.

Over the weekend, my mother and I found this chair, and bought fabric to reupholster it (a really luxurious deep purple suede which happened to be on clearance and half off!).

Once the family picnic/baby shower was over, we got the chair in the house (well, it was on our screened in porch) and I proceeded to rip the awkward, old smelling orange plaid fabric off of it. It took longer than I wanted it to (I think the last person to upholster this chair was having anger issues and using the staples to let it out. There seemed to be an unnecessary amount of staples in this thing), and I wasn't able to entirely finish, but I'm pretty pleased with how far I got.

I'm keeping the pieces of the old fabric and when I've got another weekend to be home, I'll use them to cut out the pieces of my new fabric. I haven't gotten any stuffing to replace the 50 year old stuff that I just took out of it, but at the moment, my entire project has only cost me $55! When I've finished, I'll have myself a gorgeous wing chair for under $100 (which is much better than the $300 an antique store was asking for).

For anyone who's interested in doing their own reupholstery project on a wing chair, I found a great tutorial here. My chair is a little different, so I ended up taking it apart mostly on my own, but it was definitely helpful to read someone else's process first.

Well, that's essentially it...I'm going to go work on some archaeology homework and hopefully have some time left over to finally finish the Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater which has been angrily waiting for me to come back to it for somewhere around 2 months (sorry...). More posts to come!