Summer Sewing

I just brought our daughter, Amanda, back to school in Virginia.  We had a great time this summer and did lots of different things.  My favorite was teaching her to sew.  A number of years ago, I think she was about 10, I tried to teach her and one of her friends to sew starting with the basic gingham apron.  This was my first sewing project in 4-H so I thought it would be easy for them with sewing lines built right into the fabric.  They both finished the apron but soon lost interest.

Here we are eleven years later and Amanda decides that she is really tired of the fashions available to her.  The fabric is often flimsy or the styles are too revealing for her taste so she suggests that we sew.  Our tastes are vastly different, naturally, so a trip to the fabric store was an adventure!  She picked out several patterns for both dresses and blouses which I looked over to see if they would be too difficult for her to begin on.  We agreed on one blouse pattern and one dress pattern.  (On sale at Joann's for a dollar!)  I hadn't made any garments for myself in a while so chose a simple dress pattern. 

The blouse pattern she picked was McCall's M6558 that also included a maxi dress.  The dress was her first choice to make but I suggested she make one of the blouses included in the pattern first.  The project would be quicker and she would have finished a garment, giving her a sense of accomplishment.  This pattern calls for medium weight woven and moderate stretch knit fabrics.  She picked out two different fabrics - one was a paisley sateen and the other was a colorful splashy crepe de chine.  The blouse pattern (View A) has only four pattern pieces.  The difficulty came in cutting out as both fabrics were slippery.  The pattern is relative simple to put together.  It can be a bit confusing, though, as there are no traditional arm holes and the neck ruffle tended to get in the way while constructing.  If she decides to make it again, I will suggest constructing the body of the garment first and then adding the ruffle.  There is an elastic casing, formed from the seam allowances, at both the neck and the waist.  

Here are the finished blouses!

Detail of neck edge elastic casing

Detail of paisley blouse with ruffle pulled up

I learned that it is difficult photograph garments, but I hope you get the feel of the blouse.  (I wanted Amanda to model but....)  I thought I had taken one of the paisley as it would be worn, but must have deleted it.  The fabrics that Amanda chose made these a bit hard to sew on, but the pattern was forgiving and since both were made from detailed prints little mistakes don't show, especially where I sewed the casings!

I have been wearing a lot of sun dresses this summer.  Two reasons - my shorts don't fit me and it's too hot to wear jeans to go anywhere in the south!  I found a very cute and very easy pattern - McCall''s M6744.  This pattern is for knits only.  There are several view option - maxi or short length, faux-wrap skirt or one-piece skirt, tank top, wrap top, or racer back top.  I chose to make the wrap top and skirt for my first dress.

I found this fabric in the markdown bin at Joann's.  Very summery!  (and inexpensive!)  I made the XXL View C.  The cap sleeves (all one piece with the bodice) have casings made from the seam allowances for elastic, giving the shoulders a nice ruffle.  The waistline is also elasticized, making a casing from the seam allowance attaching the bodice to the skirt.  I did make a flower from my scrap fabric as this is open to the waist.  Also, I had to pull in the seam allowances on the bodice as it was way too big for me.  This was easy, even after I added the skirt as the arm openings are just narrow-hemmed. 

Here are some close-ups of the details.

Scrap fabric flower pinned to bodice

Waist line elastic casing - I zig-zagged this to finish the seams. 

 

 

 

 

This dress only took me about 2 hours to make.  I liked it so much that I made a second one.  This time I didn't use the mock wrap skirt though.  

Sorry about the exposure on that one!  I made the bodice a size smaller on the sides, but kept the length of the larger size.  The fabric for this one is a bit more dressy.  If I make this again I will make it a bit longer.

Bodice detail - purchased brooch

I hope you enjoyed our summer sewing projects.  It was a lot of fun to sew with my daughter and to teach her a new skill.  Can't wait for her to be home for Thanksgiving so we can pick out a new project!

What did you sew this summer?  Let me know!!

Happy Sewing!!

Kathy

The Lazy Days of Summer

I haven't posted in a long time.  The summer has flown by for my family and me.  And I haven't had  any crafty inspiration either.  I think it is the hot humid summer days of the South that have done that to me!  My daughter and I did some sewing before our recent vacation to NH so I will post pictures of the garments that we made.  This was her first time sewing a garment and the blouses that she made came out beautifully. 

Our trip to NH to visit my family was busy.  It was very hot the first 4 -5 days we were there so being by a lake was nice.  We spent time at the Market Days in Concord, visited the Nubble Light in York, Maine, took a boat ride out to the Isles of Shoals, and visited the White Mountains.  Enjoy the pictures!

View from the Thomas Laighton of Smuttynose Island

View of the back side of the Star Island Hotel

 

 

Mount Chocorua

Swift River along the Kancamagus Highway

The water was about 45 degrees!

Sabbaday Falls

 

 

 

 

The Nubble Light, York, Maine

Hope you enjoyed this! NH is so beautiful and will always be a part of me!

Happy Crafting!
Kathy

Puff Ball Wreath

Here's another one of my vintage projects....

Many years ago (sounds like a novel!), like about 40 years (yikes!), I made my mother a puff ball wreath using up scraps of fabric from my sewing projects.  Back then, as I was learning to sew I mainly made garments.  As I was in 4-H, we started with an apron made from gingham (mine was orange and white), then moved on to dress construction.  My first dress was sleeveless with back and front darts, facings, and a back zipper.  Then we moved on to adding sleeves the next year.  Anyhow, I found I loved to sew and made a lot of my clothes through junior high and high school.

I made the wreath, as I said, for Mom.  Since it is made using a styrofoam  wreath as a base, over time it degraded until one day it just fell off the wall and broke.  Mom told me she cried and tried to fix it, but the base had dried out too much.  She did save all of the puff balls from it and gave them to me.  I found them the other day and with the help of my daughter put it back together again.

This project was made when I was about 12 to 14 years old, judging by the fabric in it.  It was strange sitting with Amanda working on this and telling her what I had made from each piece of fabric, as I could remember.  I told her that as I made the wreath when I was a kid I never would have thought that one day I would be sitting with my daughter working on it.

These are the puff balls.  I probably had about 300-400 of them.  I made them by cutting a circle of fabric, about 3 inches in diameter, stuffing a cotton ball in the middle and gathering up the edges with my fingers.  Next I wrapped a piece of wire around the gathers to hold it close.  The wire is then stuck into the foam.  I used a 10 inch stryofoam wreath as the base.

You can see some of the glue and foam from the original wreath in the picture!

Dabbing a bit of plain old white glue on the wire, you just start sticking puff balls into the foam, getting them as close as possible to hide the gathered end.

Love those vintage fabrics!  You can see some of the same fabrics in the yo-yos that I made here.

This is the completed wreath.  Every time I look at it I recall some project or another that I made as a kid.  This would be a great summer project for your young teen, letting them make a memory wreath and using up all of those fabric scraps!

Happy Crafting!

Kathy

Vintage-style Yo-yo Brooch

I bought a yo-yo maker made by Clover a few months ago.  After going through my VAST fabric stash, I found fabric pieces dating back to my first dress in the 70's that were too small to use for quilting but were perfect for yo-yos. 

I had never made yo-yo-s before, mainly because I didn't feel like cutting out all of those circles and trying to make them all the same size.  This yo-yo maker is great for that.  (BTW, these are my personal opinions, just as a consumer.)  This one is for the large-size yo-yos.  They are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter when complete.

You just pop your fabric in and trim away the edges.  As you can see in the photo above, there are slots for stitching.  Couldn't get any easier than that! 

Here is a selection of some of the 200+ that I have made.

After stitching so many, I wanted to make something out of them.  I have had a light blue cardigan sweater for years but never wore it because it always needed something else.  I decided that a yo-yo brooch would add the vintage look that I wanted. 

The fabric in this brooch is leftover from projects that I made when my children were small.  The blue and white striped fabric with the pink hearts is from Amanda's crib set (comforter and crib skirt) and the blue and white striped seersucker is from a pair of summer overalls I made for Blaise.  The other blue fabric, with musical notes on it, was from something I made for one of my sisters, as they are both musicians.  Can't remember what the project was though!

I stitched the yo-yos to a piece of white felt and added the center pearls.  Next I stitched a piece of leftover lace to the edge to complete the look.

This is the back.  Since this is for me, I didn't add another backing to hide my stitches.

I pinned it to the cardigan with a safety pin so I can remove it to wash the sweater.    I've had a number of compliments the few times I have worn it.

Now, what to do with all of those other yo-yos???

Happy Crafting!

Kathy

Memorial Day

I have many memories about Memorial Day.  My grandfather was a WWI veteran and I can remember him proudly marching in our city's Memorial Day parade.  When he could know longer walk the route, I recall him riding in a convertible down Main Street.  I eventually marched that same route in our high school's marching band.  We would stop at a small cemetery near the end of the route where a lone trumpet player would play Taps.  I had forgotten until typing this how much that touched me. 

Pray for our military men and women as they continue to fight for our freedom.