My blog roll has been filed lately with pictures of Colette's new pattern launch party.  Oh how I envy you other bloggers and your big fancy towns, and big fancy meet ups.  I'm stuck here in B.F.E looking forward to the next Watermelon Festival or Chili cook off.....NOT.   While others are gassing up on chili or doing the watermelon crawl I'd rather seclude myself in my sewing room.  For the time being I'll just live vicariously through you all.  I really get excited seeing your pictures and hearing your stories about your meet ups and what not. 

My weekly challenge for the month of September has come to an end.  It's hard to believe that October is here already and I'll soon be busy making Vito a Halloween costume.  Poor dog, how I torture him so.  Last year I made him a pumpkin costume.  Any ideas for what it should be this year?

For my last challenge I made my first pair of pants! Colette's Juniper wide leg trousers.  How cute are these!! I only wish mine turned out as cute.  I started with a muslin made out of an old bed sheet.  I cut a size 4 and the fit was pretty good.  I could stand to let the butt out a little (no more chocolate chip cookies for me) and my waist needed to come in about an inch. 

This was a beginner pattern and very easy to follow.  As always with Colette patterns the directions were clear and illustrations very easy to follow.  For this particular pattern there is also a blog tutorial on how to sew a fly front.  Thanks sooo much for that!!!  Putting pants together is a lot easier than I thought it would be so I do see more pants in my future (my co-workers will be thankful).  I'm not really pleased with how my final version turned out and that's because of the fabric I chose.  Big fail!  I got a houndstooth suiting fabric from Joann's.  It's a poly/rayon/spandex blend..yuck!  I totally did not know it was spandex until I got it home and started cutting.  I guess I had my eyes closed that day.  It shows every lump and bulge in the rear.  Pantylines..oh yes.  I can not wear my shirt tucked in like I intended too because it just looks tacky.  And the fraying is just ridonkulous!!

This fabric just kind of hangs on me.  I brought the waistband in a whole inch and it could stand to come in a little more.  I guess that's due to the stretchiness, and yes I know they are way too long.  I just knew I was never going to wear these so I didn't really care anymore.

Hello peeps!  Finished up my third week garment for my NSM challenge.  Can't believe I have only one more week to go. September has flown by but anymore all months seem to fly by.  I made McCall's 6163, a mock wrap dress with 3/4 length sleeves.  I've had this pattern in my stash for a while.  I found this fun stretch knit on the clearance rack at Joann's.  

This was one of the easiest patterns I've made so far.  I cut a size 10 and I did not make a muslin since I'm pretty familiar with my sizing in McCall's and luckily I had to make no alterations.  The left side seam (my left) is gathered to make it look like a wrap dress.  I omitted making the tie belt as I just don't care for self made belts in patterns and it looks good with out it.  The sleeves are gathered at the ends using elastic, a new technique for me and it was really easy to do.  Another first was the collar.  I had to read the instructions a couple of times but I finally figured it out.  The inside of the collar is attached using a slipstitch.  I watched a YouTube video for that.  I love YouTube! 

This is the first dress I've had with a CB seam.  It makes for a really nice fit.  I usually have to make alterations to fix gaping and excess fabric near the neck but didn't have that problem here.  I guess I can thank the CB seam for that.  The seams are all double stitched as per the directions and finished with a zig zag.  I thought the length was perfect so I just did a small 5/8 in. hem.  The only thing I thought was weird about this pattern is that it called for a zipper.  This wouldn't be so weird if it wasn't for the fact that this pattern was for stretch knits only.  My fabric was stretchy enough that I can easily get it off and on, no zipper needed.  I omitted the zipper.

The background in my pics is courtesy of my parent's house.  I think I've found new photographer's as my mom had lots of fun taking the pictures and my dad was in charge of the background and props.  We had fun taking them and I'm firing my husband as photographer. (Trust me, he won't mind)

The following pictures are just some fun ones we took.  Dad insisted we get his favorite spot in there, behind his grill, the Big Green Egg...

And because I had my ass kicking boots on, had to get one on the motorcycle..

Mom wanted to show the versatility of this dress,  it's also work appropriate...

My final pattern for this challenge will be one of Colette's new fall patterns, Juniper.  My first attempt at pants too!!  Anyone else get Colette's new patterns yet or have already made them?  I wanna see!!  I went ahead and bought Anise as well and I am contemplating on whether or not to join the sew along Colette is having.  Anyone in on this sew along??

Hope you all have a great week!! Until next time...

For week two of my challenge I decided to transform one of the many thrift store bargains I have picked up over the past few months. I found this wrap skirt in a fall'ish flower print. It's a medium weight stretchy cotton blend of sorts.   I paid no more than $2 for this.

I wanted to keep it as a skirt but envisioned it as a high waisted button up.  So first thing I did was
cut the skirt into 3 separate panels...then I cut off the stretchy waistband on the back of the skirt.

The back also had two darts that I let out.  I put it on Shanni the Mani and pinched out two new darts.

Sewed those bad boys up then used the scraps I had cut off the bottom for the back waistband...

Now for the front two panels, one panel had 4 buttons and the other side had the 4 buttonholes that went down the side of the skirt.  I was able to use the panel with the existing buttonholes as the base for the front center of my skirt. My intentions was to add on 5 more buttonholes...didn't exactly turn out that way, more on that later.  I basted the side seams together so I could play with them more later and not stick myself to death with pins.  Now mind you through all this I had me a little helper too...

So back to them buttonholes.  I had every intention of making 5 more buttonholes to end up with nine total.  I was going to make actual functioning buttonholes.  Then I thought why go to all that trouble??  I already have 4 working buttonholes,  I don't really need anymore.  I can easily get the skirt off and on with what I've got.   I ended up just sewing the two panels together down the center starting below the first 4 existing buttons.  Then I just sewed the buttons on top and switched out the existing buttons.  You can't even tell that they are not actual working buttonholes and why would anyone be staring that hard to notice they aren't is what I would want to know! 

So I think it turned out pretty well..

I ordered some really cute brown suede wedge boots that should be coming any day now. I think they will look super cute with this skirt. Maybe switch out the blue tights for some brown and get me a skinny brown belt for a work look.  This look will do for a lazy Sunday...

Hope you all have a great week! What's everyone working on?  Here's a peak at what I'll be working on for week 3...

I didn't get to bed until 2:30 am.  There would be no sleep for me until she was complete.  My first week challenge in honor of National Sewing Month is complete and she's "purrfect".

I'm in love with this dress! The fit is awesome and it's so comfy.  I'm so in love with it I went to bed and had dreams of it the whole night.  Woke up bright and early at 7am because I couldn't wait to get it on again.  It wasn't always a love affair though.  At first I thought the Macaron was just "eh".  I didn't even vote for it in the Sew Colette 2.0 sew along, my choice was the Iris shorts.  After reading numerous blogs and seeing so many cute versions I decided to give it my all and I'm so glad I did.

I'm gonna spare you the muslin dramatics.  No need in boring everyone, besides this post would be 10 pages long.  To sum it up I made 5 muslins of the bodice and 1 full muslin.  I found the Macaron very easy to put together, my issues were my own fitting woes, besides with 6 muslins under my belt I should be able to put this dress together with my eyes closed.  I asked for quite a bit of help and I want to thank everyone who responded to my emails and helped me out, including Ms Colette herself, Sarai Mitnick ♥.  My final cut was as follows:  Size 0 for the yoke. I had quite a bit of excess fabric in the back yoke causing a bubble effect.  I shortened the back yoke by 1 inch.  I also shortened the front yoke by 1/2 inch.  The rest of the pieces I cut a size 4.  So this was all fine and dandy until I went to attach my bodice pieces together...my seams were not lining up because of the fact I cut one inch of the back and only 1/2 inch off the front.   I adjusted my bust darts by 1/2 inch to accomodate.  This worked rather well and because of it I got a nicer fit.

My favorites of this dress are the pockets, sleeves and the pleats...ok the whole thing is a huge score in my book.

My invisible zipper is not perfect but I need lots of practice.  Being the perfectionist I am it really bothers me that my side seam doesn't match up perfectly.  But I'm going ignore that nagging voice in my head and refrain from ripping it out and re doing it.  Besides it's not that noticeable.  The nice thing about side zips are your arms cover them up. No one will ever notice (so shut the hell up nagging voice!). 

I finished up a couple of my seams with bias tape.  However I ended up running out of tape and time so I pinked the rest of the seams.  

Oh and we mustn't forget to talk about the fabric!!  For the contrasting pieces I found a vintage kitty print on Etsy.  I spotted it in Pumpkin Truck's shop and had to have it all!  It's a medium weight woven cotton with the cutest silhouettes of cats.  The main bodice and skirt are a navy blue lightweight corduroy from Joann's.  Perfect for Fall.   So with Fall in mind should I pair this dress with some boots and tights? Colors?? Black, blue...  I always draw a blank when it comes to coordinating dresses with shoes and tights.

Make sure to take a look at all the other Macaron's on the Sew Colette flickr group.  So many cute versions and talented sewists!!  I always love joining in on sew alongs, it's a chance to see others talents and always fun to see how they make it their own.

I'm sure you're all aware by now that September is National Sewing Month!  Former President Ronald Reagan declared September as NSM back in 1982 "In recognition of the importance of home sewing to our Nation."  What a swell guy!!  In honor of this I've decided to give myself a challenge.  Fall is coming fast, Sept 22nd to be exact.  I need to get my fall wardrobe in shape.  I've decided to ban myself of shopping at the big retail stores.  My only exceptions to this rule will be thrift stores for refashions and under garments (but not from thrift stores..ewww).  I have to shudder at what my "girls" might look like if I attempted to make my own bra.  So anyhoo one garment a week is my goal.  And trust me that is quite a huge goal for me.  Working M-F, 40 hours a week doesn't give me much time nor energy to want to sew when I come home.  But I'm gonna do it I tell ya!!

My first item of clothing to make it's appearance for my NSM challenge will be Colette's Macaron.  I know, I know, I've been working on it for a month already.  But I promise it will make it's grand appearance by the time the first week of NSM is through and that's tomorrow, eeekk!  To hold you over let's take a little sneaky peek shall we.



Cutest pockets eve



So do any of you have any sewing plans in honor of NSM?? Do tell...