My Mother's Day dress

So after not having sewn for myself for nearly 15 years I finally made myself a dress. With some some wonderful knit fabric from Fabric Mart, my favorite fabric store, I joined their sew along. If it hadn't been for an overflowing toilet and the resulting rain in my kitchen I would have finished on time but it still got done and I love how it turned out. 

Modifying a prom dress

In today's stores all the prom dresses are pretty much too short, too low cut, too figure fitting and just plain tawdry. For girls that want to be modest for their prom, look stylish and still keep their dignity, you pretty much have to sew from scratch or modify the dress.  In our church we have very strict modesty rules for dress.  This girl came to me and asked me to modify her dress.  She is pretty short so I cut off 3.5" of the hem, did a new rolled hem on the lining and the stretch chiffon and then pieced the old hem pieces together to form sleeves of a sort.  As you can see from her darling smile, she is very pleased with how it turned out! It only took about 2 hours to cut and re-hem the dress, but then about 3 more or so, to turn those pieces into straps, and hand sew them on.  There are several things in life I am pretty good on, but estimating time is NOT one of them.  Even with client appointments, although I have been in public accounting for 15 years, I really have a difficult time estimating how long something will take.  She offered to pay for the alterations, but I seriously have no idea how much is even fair, besides that it is a good service I can help offer, and that smile is payment enough!

Oh, so close...

Well, this past weekend I finally got back to fitting on my muslin for the online couture dress class I started over a year ago.  I have done a tremendous amount of sewing, but I always struggle with sewing for myself.  So, I had my daughter help me fit the muslin, pinning me in and out of it many, many times.  I thought I came to a good sleeve and overall fit for the dress.  Then, I made a few pieces new with the adjustments and basted the bodice together with a trial sleeve...it didn't fit well! It really deflated my enthusiasm, after I thought I had it.  So, now, I need to measure the armscye and the sleeve to see how much ease really is there.  I may have to modify a bodice side piece with a princess seam, but I won't know until I figure out the sleeve ease.  It seemed with my first trial sleeve, it fit great, then when I re-made the sleeve out of one piece of muslin, it was kind of tight and pulled the shoulder piece, off my shoulder.  Super frustrating.

I also just took on a small alteration job for a girl at church, it should be simple, and it is so much more fun to sew for skinny people.

Thinking about fabric

So, I am now in tax season, not yet preparing individual returns, but I am working on client payroll tax reports and generating W2s for them.  It is a pretty busy time.  I made those wonderful dresses for that cute missionary girl, but she had to come home early, after a week, due to health reasons.  For I am truly sorry that the people of Carlsbad, CA will not get to hear her teach them the gospel in her darling southern accent, I am grateful she is back and has an open schedule so she can help watch my children so I can work.  Everything works out in the end, as it is the Lord's plan, not ours.

Fabric Mart - my go to nowadays - has had a pretty good sale and some wonderful fabrics that I have purchased.  They just showed up yesterday.  There are some really dreamy linen fabrics.  I also got on one of their daily specials, some nice herringbone woven blend in a creamy color that I am anxious to get my hands all over.  I don't know quite yet what I will make, but as I sit here working on payroll tax reports, I am thinking of yummy herringbone and linen blend fabrics.  :)

A blue linen anyone can love

Beeswax - Honey - Yummy Yellow Linen

Wet Sand Linen

Ah, but the CRD0101 Herringbone is sold out...

I also just tried another online store and bought this amazing
Kauai Cotton Brocade
which came yesterday. The picture totally does not do it justice!  I know exactly what I want to make out of it, provided I like the fit and style of the muslin that I will sew one day.  It is a Burda pattern from December 2013.   I can't find the link real quick, I will have to come back and add it.

What fabric are you dreaming of? while doing something else :)

Missionary Skirts

Here are some of the skirts I have made for the missionaries.

Green skirt done

Well I finished the green skirt, lining and all!

The skirt has 8 godets in it as well as the lining. I was pretty happy with how the pointed join came together on all of them. I did one short cut on the lining as I just did a rolled hem on my serger on the lining and machine hem on the skirt. It turned out nice. 

A hairy mess

So I am plugging along making another skirt for Brittney, the girl going on the mission.  Well she actually left, so I am going to have to mail it to her.  The poly that I picked out for this skirt is super nice and silky, but thank heavens for my serger or else it is a terrible, hairy mess on the inside.  I finished the outerskirt (now working on lining) a week ago, and I am still finding little fuzzy clusters on the floor, carpet and random pieces of clothing I have worn over the past couple weeks.  I know that some suggest pinking shears and some suggest zig zag the edge of the fabric, but I just don't see how this can possibly rein this hairy mess all in, like the serger does.  I have to say, I am grateful for my serger :)  I hope to finish the skirt this weekend, as tax season is really starting to bear down on me and I have not yet done any of my clients W2s and their employees are getting impatient.