A crazy busy week

This past week was graduation week for my oldest son. It was full of awards dinners, senior showcase, parties and of course graduation.

Performing Bye Bye Bye with fellow seniors, he is on the right.

Seasons of Love, final number and when some started to cry

I am so thankful to the good friend who got him involved in theater. By performing on stage, managing and writing for theater he has acquired incredible confidence, and he has made friends that I believe he will keep for a very long time.

Pattern Review NYC weekend

I had more fun than I thought was possible this past weekend. The hotel was conveniently located on 25th near 7th avenue with Truemart fabrics at the corner, and City Quilter a few doors down, which I visited with Connie and Kyle on Thurs afternoon.

All these pictures are courtesy of Kyle (Thanks Kyle!)

I was waiting early Thurs afternoon at the entrance to Penn Station for Connie to arrive when Kyle came by on her way to the hotel. So together we chatted and waited for Connie. Once we were all together we walked to the hotel and checked in and proceeded to walk to Madison Square Park where we bought lunch and found a bench to enjoy the food.

We walked back to the hotel but stopped first at City Quilter and enjoyed looking at the fabrics as well as an art quilt exhibit. Connie had to get ready for registration so Kyle, Cassy (who I had the pleasure to meet ) and me went to FIT. The museum there was closed but we wondered through several buildings looking at the students final projects. For dinner a bunch of us went to Whole Foods (I love that place!) where I had delicious Indian food which I ate with very good company at the hotel's patio. Later we all gathered again at the patio to share conversation and wine.

 Wearing Burda 5/2012 108 pants,

Breakfast on the patio on Fri before the shopping extravaganza, photo courtesy of Patternreview.com

 Friday was the craziest of days, Connie and I who shared a room woke up around 6:30 am since she had be at the lobby for registration. We had time to get breakfast at Whole Foods and waited for the rest of the group to arrive (among them Karen, my other roommate, and Andrea). Some of us had early Simplicity tours those who didn't, began with shopping. My tour was late in the day so I headed to Metro Textiles first. I don't know where we went next but I know I visited Mood, Pacific Trimmings, Spandex House and Elliott Berman before going to Simplicity for a tour. We did take a break for lunch at the perfectly named Stitch Bar &Lounge.

At Mood, photo courtesy of Patternreview.com

Photo courtesy of Bonnie

 In the picture from right to left, Connie, Karen (also my roomie!), Ann from Sew Baby, mrsbewley and me.

After the Simplicity tour, Connie and I took a taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we were to meet with others from the group to see the Schiaparelli and Prada exhibit. At the exhibit I loved this Prada skirt

It will be a future project since Karen graciously offered to give me some of her leather scraps.

After the exhibit we went to dinner, I don't remember the name of the restaurant, since Elizabeth (great to meet you!) was guiding us I did not pay attention but the food was delicious and afterwards she took us to another place for gelato, yum!

Mrs America contest?

At the hotel lobby we once again gathered this time to share our purchases and model those garments we made. I am wearing a maxi I made using Simplicity 2443.

 On Saturday we went to listen to the speakers at Pace University. We arrived a bit late since the taxi driver did not know where the school was and we wondered around for a bit trying to find it. As always Kenneth King was hilarious and I was introduced to another sewing author Diana Rupp from Make Workshop.

 For lunch we visited Crisp

Courtesy of Bonnie

In the picture, top right is Emilie (Emilieatjalie on PR) from Jalie patterns. I had the chance to not only meet her but we chatted a number of times during the weekend. Jalie's new patterns include a raglan sleeve top which Emilie modeled with different design variations and fabrics; they were all beautiful and we were all excited about its release sometime soon.

Some of us decided to skip the last speaker, it was a beautiful day and we went to the Southstreet Market looking for a yarn shop that had moved, oh well. We took some pictures and headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before going to the group dinner.

Clio, Nancy, Karen and Andrea

I'm wearing a Burda maxi and top. Andrea is wearing the great suit she made!

Dinner at Tony's Di Napoli at Times Square was delicious. They were lots of raffles, I won a Jalie pattern! I sat next to Clio sporting her purple hair and wearing a stunning color blocked Burda dress. A big group decided to walk back from Times Square and we had such fun! Here we are posing in front of M&J Trimmings because who could resist?

I wore a Burda magazine dress, picture courtesy of Kyle

For one more night we sat on the patio and laughed and wondered if other guests or hotel staff would come and complain...

On Sunday morning after breakfast (at Whole Foods again!) Karen, mrsbewley and I walked to a flea market down the street where we found some shiny goodies. Karen and I said goodbye and after checking out I found myself on the patio again chatting, I had lunch, said goodbye to Jacqui and mrsbewly and took the train home.

Whew! Was I exhausted? oh yes, will I do it again? I sure hope so!

I will share patterns, fabrics and other goodies from the trip on the next post;this post took a few days to write and it is already long enough!

A brief intermission

I have been working on a couple of things to take with me when I go to PR weekend in New York next Thursday (yay!) when the above happened to my serger. On the left is the upper knife and how it looked after I saw something flying out of my machine. It took me a while to figure out what had broken off. I think it was a pin that did it, one that I didn't see to pull out. I am very lucky to have a place with sewing machine parts so close to me; I was able to drop by yesterday with my broken knife and they matched it for me. The new one has been installed and I was able to continue on my maxi dress.

Reviews for the maxi and a couple of other things will be done after the trip. I hope to be able to wear these new things in NY, weather permitting, and have more exciting venues for the pictures than my living room.

Burda 5/2012 Pants 108

Please ignore the goofy look...

 I really liked the looks of these pants and I hoped that they would turn out to be a great basic. My experience sewing Burda pants has always been excellent, I cut a 40, I played with the ease at the waist a bit and I was done. Recently my waist has expanded (welcome to the 50s!) so I cut a 42 and when I tried them on they looked awful, wrinkles all the way down my back plus a baggy seat. To try to save them I took them in at the darts, center back and sides...they still look bad. So I took out my reliable Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina and shortened the back curve at the crotch. So it has all helped but those wrinkles at the legs are still there, even if they are less pronounced.

Obligatory back view

Next time I'm cutting the 40 and adjusting the waist, why didn't I just do that to start with?

The pants have a waist facing and side invisible zipper.

 The waist at the front is lower than the front

If you want to see fantastic jeans head over to Carolyn's blog, I'm so jealous!

Burda 7399

I bought this pattern last year but didn't get to it and it jumped out at me when I was looking through my patterns for spring inspiration. I finished it yesterday and was so happy with it I wanted to share it with you! But just so you know I dressed this way just for the post, the temperature is in the 40s so I dressed more appropriately to go out.

The fabric is a linen coated with a silvery finish which I bought at Joanns quite a few years ago.

This is a fun to make pattern, quite a few pieces, the back peplum is cut on the bias for a  nice drape.

 Burda has you finish the armholes with self fabric bias binding, I used the package binding and it gave it worked just fine.

 Love that it has pockets! How did I miss posing with hands in pocket?















I didn't know what to do about the ties, I didn't have any nice ribbons or tapes so then I remembered that I had white cotton yarn and I made an I-cord. I finished it with silver beads (found some nice weight beads to stretch the I-cord a bit)

 There is a bit of topstitching to do in this pattern, I like how it looks.

In this picture the color/finish of the fabric looks like in real life (hard to photograph with flash!)

 This was a fun project, lots of different details to work with!

Let's talk knitting

I need to get a handle on the number of projects which have been completed but need to be sewn together and blocked.

Should we start with the oldest? Why not

Interweave Knits magazine Square Bodice pullover. I started this in 2008 (wow!) and being my first lace project I struggled with it. The hard part was the shaping which complicates the lace pattern. Now having made some other projects that incorporated lace I was able to finish it.

 In May 2010 I started Meg by Louisa Harding which is an allover lace pattern. This one I put away for a while and I recently finished it. This gets priority so that I can wear this spring.

Next is the Phildar Cowl Neck dress which I started in January 2011. This is the second time I do not put it together in time for the season. I'm determined to sew it up this summer!

Last project I started was Phildar's mock turtleneck dress. I ran out of yarn and found in Ravelry another knitter who had extras of this yarn and was willing to sell it, so I was able to finish it.

What is on my needles now, a triangular shawl from the latest Vogue Knitting issue, number 13. I never knit shawls but this one really called to me. I think it will be beautiful as a summer scarf/shawl.

So there you have it! I hope next time I share knitting with you I will be wearing it! =)

What kind of fabrics do you recommend?

Burda Style 6-2011

I was all set to cut out this pants from a drapey woven (rayon and polyester blend, which they called microfiber when I bought it) and of course there is not enough fabric =(  I don't usually make pants with elastic waist so I don't have any spring/summer fabrics that would work with this pattern in my stash.

What do you recommend?

Voting is open!

At Pattern Review for the Vintage contest! There are a lot of nice pieces in the competition, but if you would like to vote for mine I would be very happy =). Just click on the button on my blog that says "I entered  the Vintage Contest" and it will take you straight to the voting page.

I'm deciding what to sew next, so stay tuned!

My entry for the Vintage Contest in Pattern Review

I did it! I finished on time to enter the contest! No voting yet, I think it starts next week, I will let you know when, in case you like my project and would like to vote for me =)

I'm copying here my review

Pattern Description:
From the envelope: "Sleeveless, front yoked dress has center back zipper and may be underlined". I'm adding that it is an A-line dress.

Pattern Sizing:
Single size, 14 which in 1968 is a bust 36. I had to narrow the upper bodice following the instructions on McCalls Step-by-step Sewing book from 1967 which the pattern refers you to, and I happen to own. On multi size patterns I always use a smaller size for the upper chest area so in this case I needed to try something different, the technique has you slash and adjust as needed and it worked for me.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
It sure did, except that I used three colors.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions were very good except when it came to install the lapped zipper, the instructions say to refer to the zipper package instructions; I used the method described by Sandra Betzina which always gives me good results. The pattern notches are numbered which is wonderful, I don't know why they stopped doing that, it is very helpful especially on patterns that have similar pieces.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I love the 60s and therefore A line dresses. This seemed an easy enough pattern to try my hand at sewing vintage dresses. While I have a few vintage patterns I had never used one before, entering the contest gave me the push I needed =). I was inspired by the dress, Megan of Mad Men, wore in the new season and I showed you in a previous post.

Fabric Used:
Two fabrics are linen/blends, the brown and orange. The tan is a cotton with a linen like texture but lighter weight. All fabrics are from my stash.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
The only design change I made was to cut the back with a bodice seam to match the front so that I could incorporate the color blocking. To follow the rules of the contest I mantained the A line shape although my inspiration dress has a pencil skirt. I also follow all the construction instructions, added an underlining (cotton batiste), used all the facings and applied interfacings where the pattern recommended it. The facings were tacked to the side seams and to the underlining.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I don't know if I will sew it again but I enjoyed sewing my first vintage pattern. I recommended if you can find it and like the style.

Conclusion:
I like how the dress turned out, I think I might add a snap at the neckline to keep the bodice more upright, other than that I'm happy!

A nice surprise

We are finally going to get our front steps redone, the brick and mortar on the steps is crumbling the cement pad is cracking and the rails have rusted and have come away from the base.

Last fall we found a contractor to do the work, he is basically tearing it all down and rebuilding it and making the landing bigger, big enough that I can have a bench there =-).

The railing was what we still had to find and today we did! We found a local (Baltimore) company that does aluminum railing custom made. He will reproduce a rail we loved (a railing system ) but we could not afford, for half the price! Can you believe it?, we were shocked! We are so happy that our money will go to local craftsmen who we are thrilled to have found! If you are local and are looking for rails, fences, etc here is their website Holabird Metals.

Here is how my steps look now

On the left there were azaleas that we have already moved since the work will start next week. Today we plan on moving the ones on the right.

I will keep you posted on the makeover! I will also get a new front door, I have been wanting a new one since I moved 17 years ago, but you know how it is, what do they say? Good things come to those who wait?