Been Sewing Up A Storm

Yikes! My last entry was in December of 2008?! Well, I didn't get that dress for the Christmas party done like I had wanted, but that's ok. For a long while I wasn't sewing hardly a thing except the occasional item for my girls. I've had so much on my plate that I just haven't had the heart to sew.

I have recently been sewing up a storm though. I've gotten quite a few projects under my belt thus far. What's really amazing for me is that lately a lot of these projects have been for me! If you know me well, then you already know that I'm so focused on doing stuff for everyone else, that I neglect myself. So I decided that it was time for me to sew up a cute wardrobe finally.

I'm now addicted to Burda World of Fashion magazine. My friend Renee showed me her BWOF collection when I visited her and I was simply amazed by all the great styles. Not only do the styles actually look like something you would buy from a store, but BWOF patterns actually fit me. Thank goodness for European sizing! The following pictures are two pieces I've sewn from BWOF.

This tunic is really light and airy and fun to wear. I do get nervous with the button and loop closures though. I'm always worried about my body peeking out in the gap. I've been told though by several people I look fine so I guess I'm just paranoid.

I've also sewn this, which is my favorite thus far:The fabric was given to me by my friend Renee. Thanks, Renee! She got this cotton print in Ghana, Africa. I've never been out of the country at all, so I thought it was cool to be sewing with this. I've had this fabric for a while due to severe time constraints and also I was looking for just the right outfit. When I saw this dress in BWOF I immediately knew this was the pattern and I just had to sew it. I love dresses but never really wore them out of frustration of not finding any that fit in the stores that I liked. My bust was always too big. So I'm thrilled to finally be able to create dresses that fit.

Right now I'm in the process of making a jersey knit dress from BWOF. I've never worked with jersey before but wow is this stuff soft! I'm looking forward to getting this dress done and hopefully will post a picture here as long as I don't disappear for months on end again.

Lots of Christmas Sewing

Well, the plans for my Christmas dress fell through, but that's ok. I'm going to wear a lovely dress I made back in November. It didn't help things that I was really sick for a couple weeks.

Currently I'm sewing a professional tote from Creative Thimble. I really love the features in it and it's going to be outstanding with the fabrics I chose. Here's my progress thus far:
I've also rediscovered my love for knitting. I've knitted two pairs of socks and now I'm knitting scarves. Here's the first scarf I got done:
I wouldn't have thought I would have time for knitting since I hardly ever have time for sewing, but I've found a good bit of time. See, with sewing you have to sit at the machines and get things set up, etc. Not easy to do with various people yelling "Mommy....!" However, with knitting I can do it in the car, while snuggling on the couch with the little ones, it's very flexible.

I'm currently working on a second scarf, then I'll do a scarf and hat for my baby daughter and sew some pajamas for my oldest two. I am really enjoying doing Christmas projects.

Christmas Dress

Every year my husband's work throws a great Christmas party. It's being held in a nice hotel, so I want to wear something beautiful. If I buy a dress my only options are knits as my chest is bigger than what RTW allows for. I had decided lately that I don't have time to make a Christmas dress. But then I saw this from the Burda December preview:
So I'll wait until my Burda gets here and then I'll decide if it's doable in time for the party or not. I want something that's sexy but I don't want to look trashy or silly. This dress seems like it may fit the bill.

New President

Barack Hussein Obama. I just want to vomit at hearing that name.

A part of me wants to laugh. Really hard. But then I stop when I realize I'll be suffering through his four years along with everyone who voted for him. I can't imagine what it's like for my marine friend to have to call Obama Commander-In-Chief. He is really bummed right now.

Guess I should go enjoy my possessions while I can before Obama equally distributes them among my neighbors. And also before he hikes up our taxes so I can't afford more possessions.

In the end our country will get the leader it deserves, so it turns out we deserve Obama. I just hope it won't be as bad as I'm sure it will be. My main hope is that the man doesn't nationalize our health care system while in office.

And what is the deal with people voting based on gender or skin pigment? Does anyone care whether or not a person is qualified? No, they don't. For a country that claims it's all about diversity, we sure did spend a lot of time fawning over the fact that Palin is a woman and Barack is black. We're so focused on gender and color that we don't see the full picture. I don't care what gender or color a person is, I just want the person that will get the job done. And Barack Obama is NOT that person.

So there, my rant is done. And it wasn't nearly as bad as I could have done. Just had to get it out of my system. I just hope that the United States moves on and we do ok during these four years. I would love for Obama to prove me wrong and show he's a great leader, but I don't see that happening at all.

I am however relieved that this is all over. I get SO ANNOYED hearing those ads over and over again. And the automated phone calls for all these people I've never even heard of before.

Sock Knitting

One evening at youth group, I saw my friend Janine knitting an eyeglasses case for felting. As I watched her knitting it reminded me of how much fun I had years ago when I knitted a pair of slippers. Those slippers were so comfy and I never did find out where they disappeared to. So I got this notion in my head to take up knitting again. The main benefit being I have a creative hobby that's portable and convenient. My feet are perpetually ice cold, so I decided to learn how to knit socks. It's actually not that hard and it goes pretty quickly. Even with three kids and practically zero free time I managed to knit up my first pair quickly enough. Here are my socks:
I love how the pattern is different on each sock due to the random effect of the color changes. The sock on the left has a sharper zig-zag, while the sock on the right has more of a gentle swirl going on. It's really cool.

I actually found knitting to be quite a stress relief. Since people seem to have nothing better to do lately than tick me off, I found this relief couldn't come at a better time. Although at times I found I had to back off my tension and unclench my teeth while knitting.

I think for my next pair I'll try a white-red-green Christmas yarn. I'll just do a regular worsted weight. Originally I was doing a boucle yarn slipper, but I found the boucle was impossible to work with as it kept snagging. I'm hoping it was just my inexperience and would like to try it again as it was such a soft and warm yarn.

My Halloween Costume Is Done

Well, I got my costume done. I may create some accessory later, but for now I'm happy. My husband and I are doing a casino type theme. My dress reflects cards and poker. I'll also have a necklace made out of tiny red dice. It's really cute. My husband will be wearing a jacket with tails made from billiards fabric. He'll also carry a pool stick around with him. So I guess he'll be a pool shark. I had to do something creative this year as I love Halloween and last year I was too pregnant and tired to care, which is odd for me since I always dress up. I threw together some last-minute hippy chick ensemble. Not my best work.

Now I just gotta get my husband's costume done and I'll be all set. This year I sewed up four Halloween costumes: definitely a record. Five total will have been sewn by me since our baby daughter will wear a costume I sewed for my oldest child when she was a baby. In fact, it's the first real garment I ever sewed.

What Have I Been Working On?

Been ages since I've updated my blog. I have three kids and no "me time", so it's bound to happen. I just started homeschooling my oldest daughter, so that adds a lot more to my already overflowing plate. Seems like just when I manage to steal a moment for myself the phone rings or I get an email and it's back to work doing stuff for everyone else. Oh well, I suppose being overworked is better than being bored. Right?

So lately I've been super busy and when I do get to sew it's mostly been Halloween sewing. I got an early start since I'm swamped. I finished sewing my oldest daughter's Cinderella dress and here's a picture:
She's really happy with it and it was hard to get her to stop jumping all over the place in excitement to take her picture. Hence the one poof looking off-kilter. The bodice will need to come in a bit, but I'll hold off on doing that for now.

My current project is a nice dress for myself (yeah, I'm shocked too!) for a banquet I'm going to on Monday.
Wow, that is seriously a really bad picture. It's raining out and the indoor lighting wasn't the best and in my hurry to manage a quick picture before kids rebelled in mutiny I didn't have time to set up something nicer. Oh well. But you get the general idea. It's a gorgeous dress. It's not quite done yet but almost. I'm really happy with it. Getting the fit right was a nightmare but after two test garments I finally got the FBA (full bust alteration) correct. Also, brocade is mean to work with and likes to morph into random shapes whenever it feels like it. The collar was a real bear to work with, but it's all coming together. Can't wait to wear this dress. Gotta run!