Disboutiquers Part 29 Kids Disney Boutique / Customs Clothes psst..we sew ;-)

[nannye]

WHO ORDERS KONA COTTON ONLINE??????????????????

I need some help with ordering Kona Cotton! I am ordering from Fabric.com I want black, the blackest black I can get. BUT ordering online is difficult because pictures distort colors etc...
This is "Black" http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=492615d2-ede4-47c8-ad17-39a1e6024c2a but when you look at the picture, it isn't very black.
This "charcoal" looks darker BUT charcoal is usually a bit greyer http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=93087520-f902-4e50-bd58-cfd2bd2fbd1c
Here is "pepper" and it looks the blackest, but when you view the image larger it looks a bit tonal. http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=3b568c91-1821-4999-92bf-a212f2463c83

SO, when YOU order black, which one do you order?

 

[ivey_family]

I was annoyed too with not being able to save so I contacted them about it, they said they want people to be happy so if you do buy it and decide it isn't for you, they will refund your purchase. Which, being in systems admin for more than a decade, I can tell you, software companies just don't do. But yeah, the alpha thing is awesome.

I love the batman shirt. We are a superhero/comic nerd family so I think my kids have had batman in every size since 0-3. They had adorable onesies that were 0-3M but were HUGE on them when they were born and my husband asked every day for the almost-3-months that it took for them to fit wether they could wear them yet. When they outgrew them, we put the outfits onto stuffed animals a friend brought to the boys in the hospital when they were born, and they still sleep with them. They call them SuperMonkey and BatElephant.

I can't imagine if I had an embroidery machine back then, not that I would have had time or energy to make anything.

That is officially one of the cutest baby pictures I've ever seen! Love it! And love that their stuffed friends still wear those outfits!

So about this spool cover thing? It doesn't come off? I have had issues where the thread gets caught between the cover and the spool end, but I never thought it would work not contained, for lack of a better word.

Amazingly, no, the spool pretty much stays put. I was very surprised! Now of course with your new, high speed baby it could be a different story, but I think my mom's machine in faster that my 770 and she does it. I thought for sure the thread would get wrapped around the pin, but that doesn't happen either.

Also the shelves came from Ikea. I went looking for the Expedit shelves, but they had these right by them in the store and they are about 1/2 the price. They are slightly shorter than the expedit shelves I found out when the bins I also got there didn't fit. But I got 2 shelves instead of just the one I budgeted. I don't remember what the name is, and I didn't see them on the website, you have to go there I think.

Ok, thanks for the info! I'm thinking one of those horizontally might work under my sewing counter to replace the three sets of plastic drawers I've got now.

I have two Expedits in my kitchen that we use for toy storage and books/school. If you want something different than plastic bins, you might like those fabric drawers by Closetmaid. I bought a bunch of them on clearance at Target a couple years ago and they've held up pretty well to Legos, Matchbox, etc. They are about two inches smaller in all 3 dimensions than the squares of an Expedit. Here's what it looks like:

I have to admit seeing all your praise for how neat my sewing room was made me feel like a charlatan or something. LIES, ALL LIES! This is what the other side looked like. (and don't even get me started on the closet!)



But...
That motivated me to clean it up and now it looks like this:

I want to get a very small desk or even a shelf to put the computer on, since we got a new computer last week, I got the old Mac Mini we were using for a media server, and I moved the printer into my project room since the only time we print is shipping labels. (but it is networked in case we do need to print something from another room) The folding table is my main cutting/etc table, and clearly a catch-all. So lest anyone think my room is super neat, it is all in perspective. (though my husband came in this evening and was very impressed since it has been somewhat of a total wreck in there for a few weeks.

Your mess is still neater than my current disaster area! Looks like a really nice space! Next time I get things halfway cleaned I'll share pics.

Regards,
C.

 

[NiniMorris]

I tried to multi-task while that was stitching out (the new machine was fast but that shirt was 24K stitches!) and do an order I had from last month. A lady ordered a big brother shirt for her son to wear to the hospital when her baby was born, but didn't know what she was having so I told her I would make the little sibling shirt when the baby was born, so this is the little sister shirt to match one I already mailed out. I tried it on the old machine, which I had just had in for maintenance, but the onesie got all sorts of brown oily spots on it. I called and they weren't sure why that would be since they don't use brown oil... so, hmm. so much for my multitasking. (it stitched ay faster on the new machine anyway!)

I just wanted to say...one of my 770's had that problem when I brought it home from the spa... It is almost a 2 hour drive back to the spa...so I was REALLY upset, since I ruined 2 shirts! They told me to bring it back in and they would blow it out... they did not clean all the dust out prior to oiling it! (and probably used too much oil as well.)

Instead (well actually I bought a new one...but this is what I did to clean it out) I put just a double layer of stabilizer and ran it at full force (increasing the speed) and put small bits of almost used spools of thread... and just ran one design after another...until it stopped dripping... I think I did this for a couple days while doing other things and after a week...it finally stopped so I could use it...

VERY upsetting, but it eventually all came out. If there excuse is they don't use BROWN oil..then they either don't know what they are doing or didn't want to deal with it!

___________

Evidently I did not grab the other quotes...

I had thought about making those neck thingys...but the chilly pad things from Frogg Togg work the same way, through evaporation. Their advantage is you can easily use them on other parts of your body other than your neck.
For instance if I get over heated, the best place to apply cool water or ice (or the chilly pad) is my wrists. I cool down much faster that way. And in extreme cases you can put them under your hat... helps to cool down your head...but really does mess up your hair!

I have made the neck thingys for my silly friends who run in the heat...and thy like them...of course they are all of questionable intelligence since they RUN IN THE HEAT!!!




Nini

 

[goteamwood]

Looking for opinions.

I want an embroidery machine that does it all for me. Something that will use my computer skills but not my lack of sewing skills. Is there anything out there like that?

If so, what would you suggest for top of the line, mid range, and inexpensive?

I want to be able to put my kids names on shirts and some character pictures, etc. Put my husband's company logo on a polo shirt. Stuff like that.

Thanks!

I have to say I don't think there is much sewing skill in embroidery, you could do it without strong sewing skill. Any of the computerized embroidery machines can put names, characters and logos (though you would have to either buy software or pay someone to digitize the logo.) I could see being able to just use the embroidery machine w/o sewing at all. The much-recommened Brother PE770 is on the lower end of the price range and I think it is a great place to start. You can find it on Amazon for the $550-650 range but plan on spending at least another $100-200 on misc supplies like stabilizers, thread, special curved scissors if you want to do appliqués, blank shirts ( you will ruin some, I still do.) and fabric to use for the appliques. It adds up quickly. Oh, and the embroidery designs... I think my $550 PE770 quickly became $1000 once I added in all that stuff.

I just wanted to say...one of my 770's had that problem when I brought it home from the spa... It is almost a 2 hour drive back to the spa...so I was REALLY upset, since I ruined 2 shirts! They told me to bring it back in and they would blow it out... they did not clean all the dust out prior to oiling it! (and probably used too much oil as well.)

Instead (well actually I bought a new one...but this is what I did to clean it out) I put just a double layer of stabilizer and ran it at full force (increasing the speed) and put small bits of almost used spools of thread... and just ran one design after another...until it stopped dripping... I think I did this for a couple days while doing other things and after a week...it finally stopped so I could use it...

VERY upsetting, but it eventually all came out. If there excuse is they don't use BROWN oil..then they either don't know what they are doing or didn't want to deal with it!

___________

Evidently I did not grab the other quotes...

I had thought about making those neck thingys...but the chilly pad things from Frogg Togg work the same way, through evaporation. Their advantage is you can easily use them on other parts of your body other than your neck.
For instance if I get over heated, the best place to apply cool water or ice (or the chilly pad) is my wrists. I cool down much faster that way. And in extreme cases you can put them under your hat... helps to cool down your head...but really does mess up your hair!

I have made the neck thingys for my silly friends who run in the heat...and thy like them...of course they are all of questionable intelligence since they RUN IN THE HEAT!!!




Nini

I am more than a little annoyed that it is ruining stuff. But I started w/ a onesie, and I think the oily gunk was getting on the neck area because it is a super small opening and it was rubbing against the presser foot. I ended up cutting the onesie in half and letting it finish, but without the flappy part it wasn't getting on the fabric. So the one I posted I did on the new machine, and I am going to try again on the little one today. I used the already-ruined onesie to wipe around the presserfoot and a TON of gunk came off, I am hoping it will help. But yeah, super annoying. My machine works great and is whisper quiet but I can't actually use it or it ruins shirts.

 

[sewmess]

So, a couple weeks ago we talked about pulling threads out from the needle rather than backwards to protect the machine's tension. My mom mentioned another tip she picked up at a class that I found useful and thought others might too.

Her teacher said NOT to use a spool cover (the circular disk that goes on the spool pin after the thread spool) when embroidering. At first I thought this was crazy, but I tried it and it really works well and saves time during thread changes. The only time I use one now is for winding a bobbin or if a spool happens to be notched or rough so that thread catches on it. I even discovered that some of my Marathon spools that unroll 'backwards' from the way they are supposed to enter the machine work fine this way. If you're interested, try it out and see what you think!

I've gotten a lot done on my towels and charms this week. I even had time to applique a dress for dd. The dress itself is from Kavio, who has lots of more girly styles than I've seen elsewhere. You do have to watch the weight on their stuff though since some of it is thin like tissue t's. Anyway, here it is:

Applique Close-up - it's from Bunnycup, a raggy design:

This is a shirt I did for myself a few weeks ago from Heather Sue's superhero designs after discovering that you cannot buy a Batgirl shirt in anything but Junior sizes. The guy at the comic shop was impressed.

Hope you all have a great week!
Regards,
C.

Ok - see, the design on your shirt is a huge reason I wanted an embroidery machine...Batman (and Deadpool) emblems on things that I would wear out of the house.

I love the batman shirt. We are a superhero/comic nerd family so I think my kids have had batman in every size since 0-3. They had adorable onesies that were 0-3M but were HUGE on them when they were born and my husband asked every day for the almost-3-months that it took for them to fit wether they could wear them yet. When they outgrew them, we put the outfits onto stuffed animals a friend brought to the boys in the hospital when they were born, and they still sleep with them. They call them SuperMonkey and BatElephant.

I can't imagine if I had an embroidery machine back then, not that I would have had time or energy to make anything.

So about this spool cover thing? It doesn't come off? I have had issues where the thread gets caught between the cover and the spool end, but I never thought it would work not contained, for lack of a better word.

Also the shelves came from Ikea. I went looking for the Expedit shelves, but they had these right by them in the store and they are about 1/2 the price. They are slightly shorter than the expedit shelves I found out when the bins I also got there didn't fit. But I got 2 shelves instead of just the one I budgeted. I don't remember what the name is, and I didn't see them on the website, you have to go there I think.


I have to admit seeing all your praise for how neat my sewing room was made me feel like a charlatan or something. LIES, ALL LIES! This is what the other side looked like. (and don't even get me started on the closet!)



But...
That motivated me to clean it up and now it looks like this:

I want to get a very small desk or even a shelf to put the computer on, since we got a new computer last week, I got the old Mac Mini we were using for a media server, and I moved the printer into my project room since the only time we print is shipping labels. (but it is networked in case we do need to print something from another room) The folding table is my main cutting/etc table, and clearly a catch-all. So lest anyone think my room is super neat, it is all in perspective. (though my husband came in this evening and was very impressed since it has been somewhat of a total wreck in there for a few weeks.

Cute little super heroes! and isn't it great to find a use for something they've physically outgrown, but mentally will be a wubie.

Still got you beat on mess, but I remembered I have an old craft table my mom didn't want when she moved earlier this year and after some discussion with DH, we figured out that it might work under the window in my room - I'll have to move my vintage dressform, but that'll be easy enough.

So, my cleaning/neatening of the sewing room turned into a "next weekend" problem. I do need to get a power strip before my new machine gets set up, or I'll have to set her up on the opposite side of the room.

 

[karice2]

I'm back. The new sewing machine came and I am over the moon. I have spent time time at Joanns getting my notions and stuff together. I also took advantage of the open house to sign up for 4 classes at 50% off.

I have also taken advantage of some of their great pattern sales. So far Butterick, Simplicity have both had 5 for $5 sales. I got a few. I also got a jelly roll on sale to make a jelly roll quilt top. It went ok I guess.

I still have a lot to learn but looking forward to finally doing something for me since this whole past year has been about helping my dad recover from his stroke.

In case anyone cares, I am signed up for Sewing Skills 102, Sewing Skills 103, Zipper Skills and quilting 101 with mom at Joann's.

There is another fabric store called G Street Fabrics which is 3 minutes from work. I have signed up for a pattern alteration class and a hand finishing class there. That place is more like a couture apprenticeship school, they go all the way up to pattern making there. Not ready for that quite yet but I do well in structured programs so I may check it out.

So excited.


Kim

P.S. I did start my fabric stash.

 

[DMGeurts]

I just wanted to stop by and say hello... Yet again - I am so far behind. I always have the best of intentions of catching up, and it just never happens.

I love everything posted...

Flora - the bags turned out so wonderful, and I agree with the other posters - you are so generous!

Carrie... I love the shirt you made for yourself.

I love the Rapunzel dress...

And I love all the sewing rooms and spaces! I'd post mine, but I am sure you all have seen it a bajillion times and don't need to see it again.

I am sure I've missed many wonderful items...

Have a great night all!

D~

 

[sewdisney]

I'm back. The new sewing machine came and I am over the moon. I have spent time time at Joanns getting my notions and stuff together. I also took advantage of the open house to sign up for 4 classes at 50% off.

I have also taken advantage of some of their great pattern sales. So far Butterick, Simplicity have both had 5 for $5 sales. I got a few. I also got a jelly roll on sale to make a jelly roll quilt top. It went ok I guess.

I still have a lot to learn but looking forward to finally doing something for me since this whole past year has been about helping my dad recover from his stroke.

In case anyone cares, I am signed up for Sewing Skills 102, Sewing Skills 103, Zipper Skills and quilting 101 with mom at Joann's.

There is another fabric store called G Street Fabrics which is 3 minutes from work. I have signed up for a pattern alteration class and a hand finishing class there. That place is more like a couture apprenticeship school, they go all the way up to pattern making there. Not ready for that quite yet but I do well in structured programs so I may check it out.

So excited.


Kim

P.S. I did start my fabric stash.

It sounds like you are getting a great start!

I am envious of your G Street Fabrics. I would LOVE to have a place like that near me! I would love to learn pattern making!

 

[smittette]

I made safari vests. I used the (modified) Carla c bowling shirt pattern and left
Off sleeves, placket and collar. I posted pics a page or two back.

And possibly you saw a patchwork twirl skirt or strip work twirl skirt, both patterns you can get from youcanmakethis.com from Carla c the scientific seamstress.

I probably won't use a pattern for the twirl skirt. My mother just got a new BabyLock serger which has a ruffler foot. I'll just make each tier approximately twice the length of the one above and not sew them in loops until all the tiers are together. Then just trim them off straight and make a seam up the back. I'm thinking this will be sew much easier than all the gathering I'd have to do otherwise.

I rarely use a pattern the way it was intended anyway. I love the term "frankenpattern" from the FAQ's. More on that when I post the Easter dress pics that I'm dying to post. I think this makes 10, so I can do it soon. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to be doing geometry with my 16 yo now. So I'd better go do that first.

Your mess is still neater than my current disaster area! Looks like a really nice space! Next time I get things halfway cleaned I'll share pics.

Um, yeah, me too

 

[PurpleEars]

I went to the fabric store yesterday and got the tulle for the tutus plus some great animal print fabric - Somewhere along in this thread someone had an animal print twirly skirt that I must make for Animal Kingdom (sorry I can't remember who and there are too many pages to go back and look)- and some khaki to make safari vests, plus some really cool fluttery blue to do Cinderella.
Annnnd, they came and fixed my mother's quilting machine today. So I have several projects to catch up on there.

Sounds like you got some nice fabric and ideas! I can't wait to see pictures of your work!

Those are darling, Flora! What a great idea to make them with loops for adjustability!

I've gotten a lot done on my towels and charms this week. I even had time to applique a dress for dd. The dress itself is from Kavio, who has lots of more girly styles than I've seen elsewhere. You do have to watch the weight on their stuff though since some of it is thin like tissue t's. Anyway, here it is:

Applique Close-up - it's from Bunnycup, a raggy design:

This is a shirt I did for myself a few weeks ago from Heather Sue's superhero designs after discovering that you cannot buy a Batgirl shirt in anything but Junior sizes. The guy at the comic shop was impressed.

Hope you all have a great week!
Regards,
C.

Thanks on the nice words on the bags. It was simply a case of me not knowing how tall kids that age would typically be and therefore not able to estimate the length of straps.

The dress looks great! I think the Batgirl shirt is fantastic!

We are a superhero/comic nerd family so I think my kids have had batman in every size since 0-3. They had adorable onesies that were 0-3M but were HUGE on them when they were born and my husband asked every day for the almost-3-months that it took for them to fit wether they could wear them yet. When they outgrew them, we put the outfits onto stuffed animals a friend brought to the boys in the hospital when they were born, and they still sleep with them. They call them SuperMonkey and BatElephant.

I can't imagine if I had an embroidery machine back then, not that I would have had time or energy to make anything.

I have to admit seeing all your praise for how neat my sewing room was made me feel like a charlatan or something. LIES, ALL LIES! This is what the other side looked like. (and don't even get me started on the closet!)



But...
That motivated me to clean it up and now it looks like this:

I want to get a very small desk or even a shelf to put the computer on, since we got a new computer last week, I got the old Mac Mini we were using for a media server, and I moved the printer into my project room since the only time we print is shipping labels. (but it is networked in case we do need to print something from another room) The folding table is my main cutting/etc table, and clearly a catch-all. So lest anyone think my room is super neat, it is all in perspective. (though my husband came in this evening and was very impressed since it has been somewhat of a total wreck in there for a few weeks.

Awww, what a cute picture of the super-babies! I am sure the stuffies look fab in those outfits!

Your room looks great. Mine is actually not looking too bad at the moment since I had to clean up before the cleaners come today (they come in every 4 weeks). The problem is that I will be spending the next 2 days trying to figure out where I put different things!

WHO ORDERS KONA COTTON ONLINE??????????????????

I need some help with ordering Kona Cotton! I am ordering from Fabric.com I want black, the blackest black I can get. BUT ordering online is difficult because pictures distort colors etc...
This is "Black" http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=492615d2-ede4-47c8-ad17-39a1e6024c2a but when you look at the picture, it isn't very black.
This "charcoal" looks darker BUT charcoal is usually a bit greyer http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=93087520-f902-4e50-bd58-cfd2bd2fbd1c
Here is "pepper" and it looks the blackest, but when you view the image larger it looks a bit tonal. http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=3b568c91-1821-4999-92bf-a212f2463c83

SO, when YOU order black, which one do you order?

I just ordered black Kona fabric from Hamel's Fabric (they are in BC) the other day. I haven't seen the order yet (they had a couple of items on back order) but I am pretty sure it was black.

I just wanted to say...one of my 770's had that problem when I brought it home from the spa... It is almost a 2 hour drive back to the spa...so I was REALLY upset, since I ruined 2 shirts! They told me to bring it back in and they would blow it out... they did not clean all the dust out prior to oiling it! (and probably used too much oil as well.)

Instead (well actually I bought a new one...but this is what I did to clean it out) I put just a double layer of stabilizer and ran it at full force (increasing the speed) and put small bits of almost used spools of thread... and just ran one design after another...until it stopped dripping... I think I did this for a couple days while doing other things and after a week...it finally stopped so I could use it...

VERY upsetting, but it eventually all came out. If there excuse is they don't use BROWN oil..then they either don't know what they are doing or didn't want to deal with it!

Nini

Sorry to hear about your machine problems after it went to the spa Nini. I guess I will have to ask lots of questions when I take Genie to the spa.

I have to say I don't think there is much sewing skill in embroidery, you could do it without strong sewing skill. Any of the computerized embroidery machines can put names, characters and logos (though you would have to either buy software or pay someone to digitize the logo.) I could see being able to just use the embroidery machine w/o sewing at all. The much-recommened Brother PE770 is on the lower end of the price range and I think it is a great place to start. You can find it on Amazon for the $550-650 range but plan on spending at least another $100-200 on misc supplies like stabilizers, thread, special curved scissors if you want to do appliqués, blank shirts ( you will ruin some, I still do.) and fabric to use for the appliques. It adds up quickly. Oh, and the embroidery designs... I think my $550 PE770 quickly became $1000 once I added in all that stuff.


I am more than a little annoyed that it is ruining stuff. But I started w/ a onesie, and I think the oily gunk was getting on the neck area because it is a super small opening and it was rubbing against the presser foot. I ended up cutting the onesie in half and letting it finish, but without the flappy part it wasn't getting on the fabric. So the one I posted I did on the new machine, and I am going to try again on the little one today. I used the already-ruined onesie to wipe around the presserfoot and a TON of gunk came off, I am hoping it will help. But yeah, super annoying. My machine works great and is whisper quiet but I can't actually use it or it ruins shirts.

I agree that machine embroidery doesn't take much skills. I think it takes patience to place the item in the correct spot, but it is simply a case of measure twice and sew once!

I hope you can get the gunk off your little machine so you can use it again. It must be very frustrating!

I'm back. The new sewing machine came and I am over the moon. I have spent time time at Joanns getting my notions and stuff together. I also took advantage of the open house to sign up for 4 classes at 50% off.

I have also taken advantage of some of their great pattern sales. So far Butterick, Simplicity have both had 5 for $5 sales. I got a few. I also got a jelly roll on sale to make a jelly roll quilt top. It went ok I guess.

I still have a lot to learn but looking forward to finally doing something for me since this whole past year has been about helping my dad recover from his stroke.

In case anyone cares, I am signed up for Sewing Skills 102, Sewing Skills 103, Zipper Skills and quilting 101 with mom at Joann's.

There is another fabric store called G Street Fabrics which is 3 minutes from work. I have signed up for a pattern alteration class and a hand finishing class there. That place is more like a couture apprenticeship school, they go all the way up to pattern making there. Not ready for that quite yet but I do well in structured programs so I may check it out.

So excited.


Kim

P.S. I did start my fabric stash.

Congrats on your sewing machine. I hope you will find the classes useful. If not, I imagine you can get lots of suggestions around here! I can't wait to see pictures of your projects.

The shop you described sounds intriguing. I dabbled into making patterns and it is actually pretty easy. I just read a few books on the topic and started drafting my own patterns. I looked into taking classes from a community college but they are mostly on the other side of town (which, considering I can drive an hour from my house and still be within the city, means they are a long way away). I decided to just learn and do on my own and I had some succcess with it.

I just wanted to stop by and say hello... Yet again - I am so far behind. I always have the best of intentions of catching up, and it just never happens.

I love everything posted...

Flora - the bags turned out so wonderful, and I agree with the other posters - you are so generous!

Have a great night all!

D~

Awww thanks D~. You are the one who inspired those bags (though they are no where as nice as yours).

 

[nannye]

Sounds like you got some nice fabric and ideas! I can't wait to see pictures of your work!



Thanks on the nice words on the bags. It was simply a case of me not knowing how tall kids that age would typically be and therefore not able to estimate the length of straps.

The dress looks great! I think the Batgirl shirt is fantastic!



Awww, what a cute picture of the super-babies! I am sure the stuffies look fab in those outfits!

Your room looks great. Mine is actually not looking too bad at the moment since I had to clean up before the cleaners come today (they come in every 4 weeks). The problem is that I will be spending the next 2 days trying to figure out where I put different things!



I just ordered black Kona fabric from Hamel's Fabric (they are in BC) the other day. I haven't seen the order yet (they had a couple of items on back order) but I am pretty sure it was black.



Sorry to hear about your machine problems after it went to the spa Nini. I guess I will have to ask lots of questions when I take Genie to the spa.



I agree that machine embroidery doesn't take much skills. I think it takes patience to place the item in the correct spot, but it is simply a case of measure twice and sew once!

I hope you can get the gunk off your little machine so you can use it again. It must be very frustrating!



Congrats on your sewing machine. I hope you will find the classes useful. If not, I imagine you can get lots of suggestions around here! I can't wait to see pictures of your projects.

The shop you described sounds intriguing. I dabbled into making patterns and it is actually pretty easy. I just read a few books on the topic and started drafting my own patterns. I looked into taking classes from a community college but they are mostly on the other side of town (which, considering I can drive an hour from my house and still be within the city, means they are a long way away). I decided to just learn and do on my own and I had some succcess with it.



Awww thanks D~. You are the one who inspired those bags (though they are no where as nice as yours).

oh darn, I wish you'd gotten your order. Ugh I hate not being able to see something before I order it LOL. I assume the black is black, but the picture.... well it is deceiving.

 

[pyrxtc]

I'm back. The new sewing machine came and I am over the moon. I have spent time time at Joanns getting my notions and stuff together. I also took advantage of the open house to sign up for 4 classes at 50% off.

I have also taken advantage of some of their great pattern sales. So far Butterick, Simplicity have both had 5 for $5 sales. I got a few. I also got a jelly roll on sale to make a jelly roll quilt top. It went ok I guess.

I still have a lot to learn but looking forward to finally doing something for me since this whole past year has been about helping my dad recover from his stroke.

In case anyone cares, I am signed up for Sewing Skills 102, Sewing Skills 103, Zipper Skills and quilting 101 with mom at Joann's.

There is another fabric store called G Street Fabrics which is 3 minutes from work. I have signed up for a pattern alteration class and a hand finishing class there. That place is more like a couture apprenticeship school, they go all the way up to pattern making there. Not ready for that quite yet but I do well in structured programs so I may check it out.

So excited.


Kim

P.S. I did start my fabric stash.

I would love to take some more classes and hopefully once I move, then I can. I would love a store close to me that has classes like your G Street fabrics does. So many thing I want to learn.

I probably won't use a pattern for the twirl skirt. My mother just got a new BabyLock serger which has a ruffler foot. I'll just make each tier approximately twice the length of the one above and not sew them in loops until all the tiers are together. Then just trim them off straight and make a seam up the back. I'm thinking this will be sew much easier than all the gathering I'd have to do otherwise.

I rarely use a pattern the way it was intended anyway. I love the term "frankenpattern" from the FAQ's. More on that when I post the Easter dress pics that I'm dying to post. I think this makes 10, so I can do it soon. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to be doing geometry with my 16 yo now. So I'd better go do that first.

Can't wait to see those dresses !

I've been helping a friend learn to follow a pattern and cutting out lots of things to sew. I haven't quite finished the Sailor Moon costume since my DD needs to have it on so I know where to place the butt bow and she wants to add "things" Ugh ! Plus the chest area was a little big so I have to figure out how I want to adjust that. I started on my nieces birthday dress and wanted to make the jacket first but the pattern is so crazy for it that I think I might have to find another one. the dress is coming out cute even though the armholes are so small and I have to out binding tape on them. I should have done it before i sewed the sides up. So far the dress looks huge but I think it will be ok. I took a break from sewing over the weekend and today I did some no sewing tulle dresses for her birthday picture. I bought two kind of the stretchy headbands and did my first choice first but not sure I like how it came out so i am doing my 2nd option and I like that much better. I really need a doll the size of a 1 yr old.

I did buy myself a body form size 4-5 for all the other stuff I make, only cost me $18 including shipping since my phone company gives you points for paying your bill and you can redeem them for Amazon credits. $40 in credits and I got something I wish I had for a while now. No more lampshade for me .

I also had to recently organize my sewing room, can I call it that even though I don't sew in it? Since I had to get my house ready to show, it had to be cleaned up anyways.

I need more shelves or drawers or something when I move. My holiday fabric is in boxes and I will have 4 body doubles in the room, one of which will have my grandmother's wedding dress wearing it. I need a big sewing room !!

I am also thinking about asking my Aunt what she will do with her missing parts embroidery machine. I have seen most of the parts online so i think I could buy them and get it working again but I don't' know what her plans are. She bought it 4 yrs ago and used it for about 4 months and then never touched it again. Can't hurt to ask her plans right ??

 

[smittette]

Finally, made it to 10 posts (you wouldn't think it'd be that hard, but I get to reading what you all have written and time gets away), did about 4 hours of geometry (plus a trip to the school to get the geometry book, and a trip to the gf's house to get her geometry book since the school was locked) to get ready for the test tomorrow - short rant here *this is why we homeschool - if we're not ready for the test tomorrow, we don't do the test tomorrow; if the homework didn't get done yesterday, I know that it didn't get done and what exactly needs to get done - but, noooo, he wanted to take geometry with his friends. I have learned my lesson. All academic classes will be done at home next year. Band, choir and woodshop- no problem; math or anything else with homework- no way* ok, rant over. Back to dresses and pics.

The Easter Dress!!
Inspiration: some gorgeous sheer fabric with pink embroidery that I found on the clearance rack on a day when Joann's was having 1/2 off clearance plus 20% (or maybe 25, can't remember) off for military discount. whoo hoo! I think it ended up costing around $3 a yard.
Now, I had to de-pink it since my sister (mother of the 4yo in question) doesn't like pink and since she's kind enough to let me dress her daughter on most special occasions, I try not to overdose her on pink. Soooo, I put the sheer over a nice purple. Voila - no longer a pink dress.

Style: Obviously the skirt has to be sheer over the solid, but what about the bodice? Smocking? (I really am going to do some of that one day) Some crinkly stuff my mother has? Or, embroidery? Hmmm, Easter, bunny, Easter Bunny! Embroidery it is.
Cute little bunny looking at a bird on an egg. No, if I cut it just right and scrunch up the hem on the sheer fabric, it looks like a butterfly. So, delete birdie, find butterfly, resize it (it's redwork, so it's not too bad to resize) and add butterfly to egg. Rinse, repeat (in other words, I wasn't happy with it the first time)

Sleeves? Well, we do have that butterfly theme going on. So flutter sleeves. But I don't have a dress pattern with flutter sleeves. (Here's where that "frankenpattern" thing comes in. I have a nice nightgown pattern with flutter sleeves, but the bodice is too short and it falls straight down from the shoulders in the back (might be really cute as a dress, but it's not what I'm looking for) So I just used the bodice front and the sleeves. I used the front again for the back; I just made it a little higher and added a bit so I could cut it in half to add a zipper. Oh and I added a couple of inches to the bodice.

Skirt? Two rectangles, sewn together, hemmed and then gathered.

Ahhhhhhhh! You know that pretty, shiny, sheer stuff that inspired me in the first place? It MOVES, on it's own, no matter what I do. When I'm cutting, when I'm sewing, and especially, while I'm not looking.

I will win though.

Out comes the glue stick. Ha Ha, you shiny stuff! I've got you now. (Worked great except I had glue along my gathering stitches - didn't pull so well, but I got it done).

Make and attach the sheer butterfly.

And suddenly, the dress was finished - on Friday! When I didn't need it til Sunday. (Sometime ask me when I finished my wedding dress)

And with no further ado...

and a bonus - This one's going to be for one of our days at that other theme park in Orlando this summer.

 

[pyrxtc]

Finally, made it to 10 posts (you wouldn't think it'd be that hard, but I get to reading what you all have written and time gets away), did about 4 hours of geometry (plus a trip to the school to get the geometry book, and a trip to the gf's house to get her geometry book since the school was locked) to get ready for the test tomorrow - short rant here *this is why we homeschool - if we're not ready for the test tomorrow, we don't do the test tomorrow; if the homework didn't get done yesterday, I know that it didn't get done and what exactly needs to get done - but, noooo, he wanted to take geometry with his friends. I have learned my lesson. All academic classes will be done at home next year. Band, choir and woodshop- no problem; math or anything else with homework- no way* ok, rant over. Back to dresses and pics.
The Easter Dress!!
Inspiration: some gorgeous sheer fabric with pink embroidery that I found on the clearance rack on a day when Joann's was having 1/2 off clearance plus 20% (or maybe 25, can't remember) off for military discount. whoo hoo! I think it ended up costing around $3 a yard.

Teenagers can be a pain. I used to forget things at school all the time when I was younger, unfortunately, a lot of my friends were in my class and my mother would call and ask their parents to read everything that was on the pages we were supposed to do and write it all down so I could do my homework anyways.

The dress looks really cute. you would never know that it was a pink sheer to begin with. I would have bought some too. I can't wait until some of this prom fabric goes on clearance, I like it too much. Can't wait to see what else you do.

 

[carlabellaxox]

For my oldest for when we take her senior pics:

Thanks everyone for all the inspiration!!

Absolutely love this! Just got a new embroidery machine for Christmas and haven't been able to try it yet because of grad school. Would love to make a shirt like that for my trip this May. Where did you find that design??

 

[nannye]

Black ordered thanks purple ears (Judy?) and D

 

[nannye]

Is anyone in Michigan?
I am visiting next week arriving wed and leaving fri am. We will mostly be shopping, but are staying in the Waterford area. Is anyone from this area? Are there any stores to check out other than Joanns?

Thanks
Erin

 

[ivey_family]

Is anyone in Michigan?
I am visiting next week arriving wed and leaving fri am. We will mostly be shopping, but are staying in the Waterford area. Is anyone from this area? Are there any stores to check out other than Joanns?

Thanks
Erin

I'm from Michigan. I used to work in Waterford, actually.

The best fabric store in the Detroit area is http://www.habermanfabrics.com/. It's expensive, but extremely high quality. That's where I bought fabric and trims for my wedding dress.

Other than that, just google the closest Joann's and Hobby Lobby. Some Walmart's still have fabric, too. There may be some quilt shops in that area, too, I'm not sure. I know a couple nice quilt shops, but one is in Ann Arbor and the other in Tecumseh, which are both pretty far from where you'll be.

If you want to do a Dis meet, maybe at the Joann's in Novi, a large store, let me know!

Regards,
C.

 

[sewmess]

Two quick things.

Purpleears~that's the thing about "straightening" things, you never remember where you straightened them to..

smittette - frankenpatterning is the way to go. I also say that I generally consider patterns guidelines. Like Barbosa and the Pirate Code. Which I really need to frame somewhere in the sewing room. The dress is beautiful and it sounds like your creative process is about like mine, ever evolving.

On the new machine front: it shipped yesterday!!!

 

[sewmess]

I'm back. The new sewing machine came and I am over the moon. I have spent time time at Joanns getting my notions and stuff together. I also took advantage of the open house to sign up for 4 classes at 50% off.

I have also taken advantage of some of their great pattern sales. So far Butterick, Simplicity have both had 5 for $5 sales. I got a few. I also got a jelly roll on sale to make a jelly roll quilt top. It went ok I guess.

I still have a lot to learn but looking forward to finally doing something for me since this whole past year has been about helping my dad recover from his stroke.

In case anyone cares, I am signed up for Sewing Skills 102, Sewing Skills 103, Zipper Skills and quilting 101 with mom at Joann's.

There is another fabric store called G Street Fabrics which is 3 minutes from work. I have signed up for a pattern alteration class and a hand finishing class there. That place is more like a couture apprenticeship school, they go all the way up to pattern making there. Not ready for that quite yet but I do well in structured programs so I may check it out.

So excited.


Kim

P.S. I did start my fabric stash.

I meant to comment on this too - I think I actually started my stash before I got my machine.

Have fun learning & I can't wait to see your creations!