Ugh, I Think I'm Getting Worse at This...

Oh well, I guess there's no use denying it; I'm terrible at regular blogging. Too late now, though.

I've gotten a lot done since I last blogged, though. I did a lot of overcasting, and only have one more garment to do in that respect. If you can believe it, I overcasted the pieces for 6 garments in one day! Even I can barely believe that happened, and I did it! I did that on Monday, so I was ready to start sewing on Tuesday.

Once I got the overcasting done, everything else has been going really quickly. I finished my last two pairs of jeans on Tuesday, two more pairs of trousers on Wednesday, and a dress today. Each of these pieces will be displayed in victory posts, as usual. Adding my Red Hand Knitted Sweater (which I finished last week but never told you about) to all of these pieces, I've now finished three more outfits! Again, I'll show you that later.
I went to JoAnn's for hopefully the last time in relation to this project yesterday and finally got all the buttons I'll need. I don't even want to talk about how much I spent on them. Buttons are way too expensive, especially because the pretty ones are the most expensive. I think I ended up with 5 different button designs, (not including the jean style buttons) and I'm really happy with them. I think they all really reflect the intricate detail in gothic architecture. Pictures later!

At this point, I'm at least 4 days ahead of where I originally planned to be, which makes me feel a lot more comfortable with where I am than I otherwise would be. I might get a day or two to actually have a break before I have to start packing to go back to school!

In other fun news, I got myself a new full size ironing board! I've been working with a half size one forever, which is okay, but I've always wanted a bigger one. I got a gift card for Target for Christmas and decided to treat myself to a nice new board. I'll probably still take my smaller one to school with me, but it's nice to have the big one for the actual construction time.

Okay, enough for descriptions today; on to other important posts.

A Bit Late...

I know, I know; the first of the year was yesterday, but that doesn't mean that I can just ignore the obligatory New Year's resolution blog post! A lot of my resolutions are based on what's going to be happening in my life quite soon (final semester and then graduation), but I'll still put it on the list anyways. It makes me feel so accomplished when I get to cross things off!

First, what TO DO:
1. Finish my line. Obviously this is going to happen whether I want it to or not. I have three weeks left at home to finish 16 more garments (and 3 knitted pieces, but I can do those at school if I need to), and so far I've added 4 days to my sewing time than I originally planned. I might actually get a few days to be on break!

2. Make some more workout clothes. I found a pattern for workout pants that I really like last year, but never got any further than making one pair. I'd like to whip up a pair or two before I go back to school so I have something I'm not ashamed to wear out of my room when I go to the gym (I have a really open schedule this semester, so I'm planning some exercise time).

3. Become friends with prints. I don't know what it is about printed fabric, but I find myself avoiding it a lot. Even that brown metallic plaid weave that I got at JoAnn's intimidates me because I can't think of a thing to make with it (Any suggestions?).

4. Use up some of the fabric in my stash. I don't have a very large stash, but since moving to a new (smaller) house, it's become a lot more than I want hanging around. I'd much rather have fun new clothes than a big pile of fabric that I have to lug around everywhere.

With those in mind, let's talk about what NOT TO DO:
1. I can't keep making dresses just because they're pretty. I have to face it; I live in Pennsylvania. It's usually too cold to wear dresses, and it's just too casual here to wear them all the time anyway. I do have one more formal dance before I graduate, so I'll probably make a dress for that, but I don't want to keep making stuff if I know I won't be able to wear it.

2. Staying up until 2:30 am when I have to be awake by 7. Although I'm sure I'll break this rule at some point, it's still something I need to work on, so I decided to write it down.

Well, that's it for rules. They're not too specific because I know life will change my needs anyway. I wish you all well on your resolutions, too! Don't try to change too much too quickly!

Piece #18 and Outfit #4 Finished!

Didn't expect this, huh? In addition to pattern making, fabric cutting, and sewing up the two blue shirts, I was able to make the Gold Chiffon 4 Square Top. Isn't it great?! Another outfit finished!!

This top is essentially the same as the Black Satin 4 Square Dress, except that it's smaller and there aren't chain straps. It's about a 60% opaque soft gold chiffon, which is really nice and flowy. The biggest obstacle I had to face was working with the chiffon. This was one of my first real experiences with this fabric, and I discovered it to be a very fussy one. To do the edging of each square, I used a rolling hem foot attachment for my old singer machine. I tried to do this immediately after cutting out the pieces, not realizing that I needed to make sure the edges were perfectly square with the fabric threads. So, I spent about two hours pulling the fibers from each edge of the squares until they were perfect. After that, the rolling hem went fairly well. It did take a bit of getting used to, though.

All in all, it turned out the way I designed it (although I think I imagined that the fabric would be a little more flowy than it is), and I'm really happy with this outfit. I still have to hem the pants and I plan on adding sequins to the chiffon top as well as painted gargoyle wings to the tanktop. The extra decorations will be done while I'm at school.

Total Hours Logged: about 4 1/2

Fabric: New Gold Chiffon 1 yard

Notions: none

Cost (not including time): about $8

Pieces #16 and 17 Finished!

First are the two shirts which have been waiting to be finished for way too long.

The Blue Cotton Long Sleeve V-neck Top is the first one I got done. It's the raglan sleeve version of the shirt pattern that I designed, and I have to say, I'm really pleased with how all of them are turning out. I didn't include the V in the back of this one, which I like a lot. I like that the back neckline isn't completely flat or rounded. I think it's a fun little detail (albeit unintentional).

Total Hours Logged: 1 1/2

Fabric: Royal Interlock Cotton Knit 1 yard

Notions: none

Cost (not including time): about $7

The second shirt is the Blue Cotton Half Sleeve V-neck Top. This one has set in sleeves, which I also like, though not quite as much as the raglan. This is the last shirt that I need to make, so I guess now is where I critique the pattern and the process of the shirts and whatnot. Well, I really like it. I love knowing that I no longer have to rely on shirts and tanktops from stores. It's so much more satisfying to make my own clothes, and it's definitely cheaper in most situations (clearance sales excluded). I don't think I'll stop buying ready to wear shirts entirely, but I'll only buy them if they're extremely on sale ($4 and under). At this point, I'm pretty proud of myself and all the shirts I've made. I'm excited to decorate some of the shirts when I get back to school.

Total Hours Logged: 1 1/2

Fabric: Royal Interlock Cotton Knit 1 yard

Notions: none

Cost (not including time): about $7

Oops, Forgot Some Stuff...

I forgot to mention several very important things! First, I've taken away the Off-White Hand Knitted Gown/Wedding Dress from my list of garments to make. I won't be able to make it in time, and I want to spend the time I do have focusing on pieces that will definitely be able to be finished.

To replace it, and also because of the large amount of extra fabric I have, I've decided to add two more dresses. One is a Darkwash Denim Dress, which will combine the patterns of the Gold Satin Taffeta A-line Gown with both of the Arch-neck Dresses. The other dress I've added is a Grey Suiting Princess Cut A-line Dress. This essentially takes the princess cut jacket that I designed and makes it a dress. I also redesigned the Grey Modified Suiting Sheath Dress. It's still going to be a sheath dress, but I changed the style of it so that now it's a combination of the pencil skirt pattern and the Arch-neck dress top. Hopefully the end result will be more dynamic than what I had originally designed.

Also, there are two more Christmas presents that I want to share with you!

The first is an assortment of sewing books that will probably come in handy when I get to some of the more detailed pieces (such as the Grey Wool Coat).

I haven't had any time to look at them at any length yet, but I'll try to find some this weekend, if the holiday doesn't take up too much of my time.

I also got a copy of Julia Child's cookbook; Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I don't normally like to cook that much, but I can hardly wait to try out some of these recipes! I want to test some of the appetizers and desserts out on New Year's Eve, as long as I can get the ingredients.

Okay, now that's really everything as far as news, I promise. Have a good one!

Well, I Have No Idea...

So now I've been home for two and a half weeks, but I still can't seem to post on a more regular basis. I have no idea...

Anyway, on to the interesting stuff. I've gotten a lot done since I last posted, which makes me very happy. I finished all of the patterns that I had yet to make (pencil skirt, arch-neck dress, princess cut dress and the sheath dress). Once those were finished, I made muslins for the arch-neck dress pattern and the pencil skirt to test the fit. When I made the pattern for the arch neck dress, I automatically added 3 inches to the waistline, like I had to do with the pattern for the princess cut jacket. When I made the muslin to test it, I ended up not needing any of the 3 inches that I had needed before. Weird, huh? Whatever the reason, the pattern works.

Once the patterns were done, I was able to cut out all the remaining garments that I hadn't done yet (the photo is all of the cut garments sitting on my pressing table). It took a long time, and I was vividly reminded of how much I dislike cutting fabric. Seriously, it sucks. Also, I think I need to get my scissors sharpened...but, it's all done now! My next step is to overcast everything before I sew it. I've planned to do all the overcasting and then all the sewing, but I'll probably ignore that and just do one piece a day. I haven't really decided, though. Overcasting is a boring, mindless job, and it's actually pretty exhausting.

Now, on to more important things...

CHRISTMAS GIFTS!!!!!

My parents gave me a Bernina serger!!!!! I'm so excited to use it, but I don't really know how. There are classes offered at the store where by parents found the serger, so I think I'm going to sign up for one before I start to play around with it.

With the serger came some thread for me to get started. I'm so excited to try it, but I have to stay focused on my project.

My other big present was a new digital camera that my lovely boyfriend got me. It'll definitely be nice to have good quality photos rather than the fuzzy phone pictures that I've been taking. I love my new camera so much! I decided to take photos of all of my clothes so far so that I can get a feel of what I have done from a different perspective. Watch out for an inventory post in the days to come!!

Well, that's all I have at the moment, other than several victory posts which I'll be putting up once this one is finished. Have a great New Year's!!

Back Home, Ready To Sew!!!

I know I've been relatively quiet the past few months, but I'm back home now, which means that I'm ready to get back to some intense sewing!!

I guess there's a bunch of news for me to discuss first, so I'll try to do that quickly...
First, my parents are in the process of moving into a new house, so everything is crazier than usual, because all of our stuff is split up between the old house and the new one. My parents have decided to let me take over one room of the old house for the break for me to sew in. The new house is smaller than the one we were in, so there isn't enough room for my sewing stuff to be set up.

Basically, the deal is that when my mom leaves for work, she's going to take me to the house and then when she comes home she's going to pick me up. So I get about 9 hours every day with nothing else to do other than sew. Today was my first day there for it, and it was pretty exhausting because I was there the whole time (no lunch break away from the house).











So, here's my new sewing room! There's still some furniture that my parents have to decide what to do with, but I've definitely got enough room to do my work. I'm still waiting on a surface for ironing, but that just has to be moved into the room. It's so exciting! I have so much more light to work with I don't even know what to do!

After I arranged everything, I spent most of my time planning out everything I need to do. I put everything on its own little card so I could really visualize it.

It was a lot of stuff...


Once I had a good idea of everything I need to do, I made a big calendar of the weeks I'll be home and taped it to a box. I pinned certain things that I want to get done on each day (no more than 4 tasks per day), so I'll be able to make sure I'm really on track. It's something that I can change if I find that some things don't take as long as others and it's nice and flexible. If I get tired of cutting out fabric, I can just move some cards and schedule myself to sew that day. I think it'll work out much better. I'm mostly more confident because I can really see just how much work there still is so I can't convince myself that I have a lot of extra time anymore.

Once I finished all that, I even had time to finish the two Blue Cotton V-neck Tops that have been waiting for...I don't even know how long it's been...a month and a half? Anyways, they're both done now and ready for any embellishing I want to put on them. I'll post about them separately.

Well, that's it for today! Tomorrow I'm planning on working on the few patterns I haven't finished yet. I'll post again soon (I promise)!