Four in a day

Happy Columbus Day! Or if you're Canadian, Happy Thanksgiving! Well those don't really relate to the post at all. Ok, I guess I can be thankful that I have this fun hobby to enjoy and the means to enjoy it - there how's that?

On to the sewing. Today was the marathon sewing day. Started off a little shaky (more on that later), but I managed to get four tops done today. All in the knit theme I seem to have embarked on lately. I made a couple of ANTONIA tops then switched over to two QUIARA's both patterns from Farbenmix.

The Antonia pattern is a bit challenging only because it has so many pieces to it and it's a bit tougher to figure out which print to put where than you might think. Plus there are a few details that are left out in the pattern. I decided to work up a little tute on that, and i'll post it tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are my trial Antonia's worked in a mix of US and Euro knits. I won't tell you which ones I prefer, but you can probably guess.

This first Antonia shirt was designed by my daughter - she picked out the fabrics she wanted to have in it anyway. Nice job! The blue butterfly print is from Joann's, the stripe is Stenzo and the plain coral is from the big Fabric.com blowout sale a few months back.
Antonia 2 is a mix of more types of knits from various sources. This time I used FOE (foldover elastic) on the neckline instead and the bell sleeve option from the pattern. Quiara 1, out of knits from our very own local store, called the Rainshed
And finally Quiara 2. This one has a little added embellishment - time to spice up the plain tees with some fun. Again my daughter contributed to this one, she wanted a girl, flower and bird on her top - and so she got it. Embroidery designs available at Huups. The rainbow striped knit is gorgeous quality stuff, from Fabric Bliss. Not sure what the origins of that fabric are but it's really fabulous with a great sheen to it.
Used the FOE again on the neckline and on the edge of the short sleeve portion.
That's four tees in one day and i'm beat, off to dreamland for me. See you tomorrow fellow fabric fans!

A sewing binge

Or at least it felt like a sewing binge this weekend. In actual fact I only just completed outfits this weekend but the biggest challenge of all was the Ottobre skirt I started on Friday night. Not a huge challenge per se, but very time consuming because I added alot of embroidery to it before sewing and that always slows a project down. And in true Newtonian form, my embroidery software needed updating before I could do anything - are you guessing where this is going? You have probably been there yourself before. Yup, 3 hours later after all the glitches were worked out I had a functioning piece of software again. And how much stitching did i get done? Not so much. Oh I just love small software companies - NOT! Anyway, finally finally I could download and load designs onto my machine again. Yaay! Ok so back to the Ottobre skirt, I added these floral designs to match the Kaffe Fasset accent fabric I was using and stitched it onto the plain brown corduroy. Finished it up, added a matching belt and it's a perfect match to a sweater my Mom whipped up a couple months ago. Yay - a finished outfit. Take a bow!

Like the pumpkins? Those were planted by the kids and finally a few months later, we have a whole crop of them just in time for halloween. They are decorating our front porch for now.
I managed to get some nice model shots of my new skirt design today - the weater was so lovely and sunny today.
And finally the Olivia rose Twirl dress - I really love this vibrant blue color - amazing.
Back to the sewing machine - I have the whole day off tomorrow - I will be sewing up a storm - I hope!

Love Affair

What's this? A Love Affair? Desperate Housewives episode you ask? No! Not at all. I've fallen in love with sewing knits these days! So much fun and sew easy ;) I don't know why I waited so long. I've only scratched the surface starting with these pieces but I tell you a bazillion more are planned. It's too fun to stop!

Here's is an Ottobre Designs pattern done in a pique knitAdmittedly not the best for achieving a nice lettuce edge, simply because you need to be able to stretch the fabric alot, and pique knits aren't as stretchy. Still, this first attempt worked out well. And then there is the FOE - that's sew speak for Foldover Elastic. Where has this stuff been all my life? Seriously, this makes knits completely painless - delivers a beautifully finished edge with stretch and return and looks great too. Oh and did I mention that it's foldover, so there is that nice easy to turn groove in the middle of it! Can't get any easier. Hmm there is a commercial in there somewhere...
Attempt 2 is a plain brown turtleneck spiced up with pink lettuce edging (another Ottobre Designs pattern). The turtleneck matches my new cupcake twirl skirt design. This top is made of cotton lycra and is very stretchy thus delivering a very nice lettuce edge. Used a wooly nylon thread here to really fill out the stitches and show off the pink contrast stitching.

True, I used the serger to achieve that nice rolled edge effect - while not absoluetely necessary, I'm pretty sure you need the serger to achieve a professional look.

The finished set. Now go buy some knit fabric and give it a go!