Saturday, February 21, 2009

Finished at last!

Finished a McCall's dress that's been in progress since FOREVER ... or at least the last year. Unfortunately I think it still needs a little work - it was too large in the back so I took it, still loose, took in again, still loose, then got frustrated and took it in over 2". Now it's a little too tight and the sleeves won't let my arms move forwards enough to type. This is not so good. Soooooo got to take the zipper out AGAIN and move it once freakin' more. Sooooo tired of this zipper. Oh well. Until then it's wearable so long as arm movement isn't high on my to do list. Will take picture soon to show off. :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A little behind

So much stuff piling up!!

That's my excuse for not posting earlier... like for the past few weeks. Sigh.

I've just been busy. Really.

And I couldn't find the camera cord. See, valid excuses, all. If I keep on will you believe me?

Sigh, sigh, sigh.

Still, for all my procrastinating on posting, I have been sewing. A lot of stuff for the shop which you can see by clicking over to that or checking out the shop blog, cherrylime.blogspot.com. I won't bore you with it here. :) The one new creation I do want to share, though, is the chemise and robe set that I'm developing. Because I can't just get one design and stick with it. :) I got inspired by a box of discounted cotton lawn fabric from Fabric.com that was just the craziest prints. So very, very 70s, all of them. Naturally the one I bought the most of was the biggest WTH? one - dyed stripes of mocha cream and BRIGHT pink with gold paisley and flowers all over. Glittery gold. Seriously. I really loathed the stuff. So figured I should use it for my muslin for the first chemise and summer robe and somewhere between the bolt and the garment I really began to like the fabric. Go figure. I think it was just too much when it was in fabric form while in chemise form it somehow works. Funny how that works.

Here's the muslin of the chemise - it's a very simple design, basically a trapazoid with scoops out for the arms. I like it.





Right before my wedding mom got me a high-end little nighty with the same basic design but the fabric was so stiff it was uncomfortable and the straps didn't adjust which had the empire waist hitting about halfway down my little C cups. Not the look I was going for. She returned it and I left thinking that I could do that and so much better. So nearly two years later this is my stab at doing so. :)

To go with it, this is the very beginnings of a sleeveless robe. I still need to add the lace to the armcycs, add in-seam pockets, sew up the sides, topstitch, hem, iron ... there's a lot to do. So please don't be too critical of the picture as it is. There's still a lot to be done! But it should give you an idea of where I'm going with it. I really like the addition of the wrap ties and might convert my normal cotton robes to wraps as well. Still considering, but I like it for this garment.



So, there it is. A bit of what I've been keeping busy with. How 'bout you?

Monday, February 02, 2009

Break for Crochet


(very much not me)

I've really been enjoying all the sewing the SWAP is forcing me to do but homework's began to pile up. In college, during a reading-intensive semester, I learned to crochet while reading so I decided to do something yarn-related as my SWAP jacket. Found a couple nice patterns last Friday and picked up some appropriate yarn on Saturday and started crocheting! After a few false starts I settled on this short sleeved jacket and started!

So far I've made it through the shoulders, which is more than I usually managed. I tend to get quickly bored while crocheting though reading while doing it helps a lot. It's a really basic lace motif that, once I got it down, meant I could stash the rather confusing directions and just go with it. So far I like result fairly well ... I'm not using the exact yarn they recommend, mostly because I forgot everything but the recommended oz by the time I got to Michael's and so just went by that and my favorite colors. I did find a gorgeous, slightly variegated dark green that'll look great with everything in the SWAP so yay to that. However I forgot that I tend to be a tight crocheter and the yarn isn't draping like the picture. I'm hoping that the weight of the whole thing will cause drapiness but, at the moment, it's a little bunchy and stiff. So we'll see. The good thing is that if it fails out I really haven't lost anything. It's forced me to plow through some reading assignments so if that's all I get out of it that's fine. Still, I wouldn't mind a pretty wrap. :)