Almost a year!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post! 

We have a new little boy born in April of this year. I'm also starting up an etsy shop! 

Finally, my bra fits!

I did it! My bra finally fits!

After what seems like a billion testers I got my fit down. No more floppy flaccid cups. 

Now to make all the bras! 

Late birthday present.

I am only a month late on my older son's birthday present: a requested Hobbes stuffed animal from Calvin and Hobbes! 

As you can see he isn't finished. This is Hobbes in the real world as everybody but Calvin sees him.

He's made of fleece and hand sewn. I despise hand sewing so I hope my now eight year old knows how much of a labor of love this is. 

Hurting so bad.

If anyone ever tells you that laparoscopic surgeries don't hurt they are lying. Liars, liars, pants on fire.

After 1.5 years of gut pain and numerous doctor visits and procedures, I had given up and mostly accepted the gastroenterologist's diagnosis of possible IBS.

I had always thought it was my gallbladder so I requested a Hida scan in 2014 but never knew what the results were. 

Last month we did a repeat MRI to check my liver hemangioma and it just happened to find sludge in my gallbladder so I called nurse and asked for Hida scan results: 39%.

I said, "I want to talk about this! Sludge and an old Hida that showed sluggish gallbladder even then?!"

The nurse, kind of snotty, asked if I wanted to speak to a general surgeon. Damn right I do!

Fast forward two weeks and surgeon says, "Yeah, let's take it out."

He told R (husband) that there was so much inflammation it should have come out a year ago. Dang it, doctors!!!

I caught this, they didn't catch it. I did. 

Now I had my cholecystectomy on Thursday (01/14/16) afternoon and they shoved me out the door screaming in pain. I spent all day Friday at the ER with barely any pain relief and the CT scan revealed fluid in my abdominal cavity. What did they do? Nothing. 

It's now 01/19/16 and I'm still in pain. Never underestimate the ability of the human body to find ways to torture itself. 

Christmas!

LI finished brother-in-law's fleece hoodie. Sorry for the lack of makeup and foundation garments and poor lighting; I was in my pajamas. I graded up from a large to a 2XL. 

Grandma loves her blanket. Minky is a slippery devil! 

I'm working on sister-in-law's fleece blanket now.

I got early Christmas presents: two new sewing buddies! 

Their names were sweetpea (the Siamese boy) and his sister Tiger (tabby). I renamed them Rick and Coral.

Yes, after "The Walking Dead" joke names. They are sweet as pie and cute as buttons. 

Sigh.

I'm using unisex Mccall's pattern 5991 to make Doctor Who fleece jacket for brother-in-law, leaving off the hood. The front is a princess seam and the center front is split upper and lower. I already graded the pattern from L to 2XL and put together the split halves to make one solid center front. I'm thinking about redrawing the side and center fronts to make one front since he's a boy and boys don't want princess seams, plus it would break up the fabric print if I left it as two parts. 

On a good note I finished husband's grandma's lap blanket last night. 

Still working on Christmas presents

We took a short family vacation to Disneyland. We already have annual passes and now my in-laws have theirs. We all stayed in their timeshare for two nights then we stayed in our cab-over camper for a night or so. 

Needless to say I did not get any sewing or crafting done for the time I was off work.

I am trying to decide how wide to make Grandma's lap blanket. The flannel is 45" wide, the Minky 58". I am using the edges of the Minky, pulling the selvages and cut ends around to the top of the flannel to self bind. I need to cut it and get it sewed. It won't take long, I just need to stop procrastinating. I even have the machine threaded and ready to go.

I have the pattern for the Doctor Who fleece jacket traced out and I graded up from a large to a 2XL. (I greatly need a cutting table since I cut on my floor and that kills my back.) The sewing on that should go fairly quickly.

I work today and until then, I'm watching my Craftsy class on sewing knits. She's a pleasant enough teacher, quite knowledgable, but says "um" a lot and constantly clicks and smacks her lips and tongue. It's a little distracting but she does give some good tips. 

She's here!

L

My new machine is finally in my possession! Woohoo! 

She's a Pfaff Smarter Creative Pro C1100. Her name is schatze. 

I used her to sew the last fleece blanket for my local customer:

She is quiet, stitches beautifully, and I hope to get a lot of mileage out of her.

The next things are Doctor Who fleece jacket for brother-in-law, a grandma lap blanket for Rob's grandma, sister-in-law's fleece blanket, and my son's 11th Doctor costume. 

Impatient me

I'm waiting on my new machine, a Pfaff this time. It's been at my in-law's house for a few weeks, waiting for us to give my mother-in-law the money since she used her card to buy it when it was on sale for 80% off. 

She bought one for my sister-in-law on my recommendation.

It's fifteen minutes away. So close and yet so far. 

Christmas presents

I got an order for three fleece blankets. A local lady, a friend of mine, wants blankets for her kiddos. Good thing I can sew!
I only charged her for the fabric plus a little extra; that helped cover the Doctor Who fleece that I'm using to make my brother-in-law's jacket for Christmas.

The first blanket is a cheerleader fleece from F&M Fabrics in Bakersfield (a family owned fabric store):

I chose a light blue fleece as the backing. Her favorites are black and blue and this blue matches nicely.

The second is a camouflage fleece with a deep brown fleece backing.

The third is a giraffe skin print that will also have the same deep brown fleece backing.

It took me an hour or so to draft, cut, and sew a sewing machine caddy for my mother-in-law's new Brother Dream Machine.  I used bias tape on the pockets and KamSnaps to attach a removable thread catcher.

Trashed. *sigh*

I had to ditch Simplicity 1777; there was just no way to salvage this thing.
I made my necessary FBA, narrow sloping shoulder, short bodice adjustments. I made sure that the pattern measurements matched my own plus the ease.
But y'all, when I basted the fabric together and tried it, the waist seam was at my hips. That's 9" below my actual waist.

So I groaned, ripped out the seams, shortened the center bodice and the side bodices.
It still didn't fit. Here you can see how much it bunches:

It didn't matter how much I hacked off, it just wouldn't go. I finally decided to check S1777. I'll use the fabric for more tap pants rather than just chucking it in the trash and wasting fabric. 

'

Sew-along time!

My friend Kristine and I are hosting a sew-along for Simplicity 1777. It's a 1940's reprint with a center front bodice. I like the V-shaped neckline and shorter sleeves of view B so that's what I'll be doing!

I traced my pattern in a size 22 and graded up two sixes. I like to trace off my patterns so that I have the original intact in case I need to make changes or a smaller size someday (one can hope, right?).

I used the instructions from a class I purchased on craftsy (Joi Mahon's class) and compared the measurements on the pattern to my own. I had to do my standard full bust, sloping shoulders, and short waist adjustments. 

I added four inches to the butt, waist (wasn't necessary) and hips, ten inches to the bust (I have a 12" difference between my chest and bust measurements as well as 12" between my hips and waist). I removed two inches off the shoulder length. 6", Simplicity? Do you think I'm a linebacker? I'm a curvy hourglass, not a miniature 5'1" football player. 

I digress. I then used my tracing paper that I bought from Richard the Thread and used that to trace the pattern and markings directly onto my fabric. 

I was going to use a blue flower print rayon but it turns out I only had 2 3/8 yards and I needed 2 7/8 yards. I received it as a gift so I'm not complaining! I'm now using the lavendar rayon. It has darker lilac circles and little red and green flowers or perhaps berries. Sure is slippery stuff! It has a lovely drape though and will be perfect to wear. 

Tomorrow I'll finish cutting the sleeves, center bodice, and bodice back. 

Blog reading

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I just have to say, I'm enjoying a blog I found. She makes some gorgeous 40's clothes.

http://star-spangledheart.blogspot.com

Sewing Machine Reviews

Sewing machine reviews

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Why can't I find a machine review from someone who has actually used the dang thing for more than a week?! I don't care that it looks pretty out of the box...how well does it work? What did you make? What features do you like and what do you not use? Have you had issues? How is the tension? Are pressed feet easy to find and affordable?

Review it when you've had it for six months, a year, or longer. Please for the love of sewing, stop giving five star reviews when you haven't even taken it out of the ever-loving box. 

Wow, quite a bit of a break there. 

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It's not like anybody actually reads this; just little old me and the hectic squirrels that pass for my brains nowadays. 

We went camping a few miles from home. Primitive campsite but it was a break! Very quiet, up in the mountains.

I need to finish cleaning my house so I can get back to sewing. I have a lot of projects to do, including a swimsuit for my friend. I also sold one of my shirts! Hooray! 

We went to Disneyland and we wore the shirts and the dress I made.  

     

My Singer Quantum 9960

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My Singer Quantum 9960 quit working. Sixteen months old. It would turn on but the needle would stick, it would jam, it would make awful death throe noises. 

I checked the timing three times...not it. I made sure it was clean and oiled: yup. New needle and properly threaded upper thread and bobbin? Check. Bobbin case good? Well...maybe not so much; it seemed very loose to me but I still didn't know if that was the issue. A sewing buddy in Virginia suggested feed dogs. My husband suggested the motor.

Singer and Brother are two that I know of that have gone almost completely plastic. Even the bobbin case is plastic! I checked with Singer. Would the warranty cover it? Nope! I'm on the dole for repairs. It would cost more to repair than I paid for the machine! 

Because I purchased it at Costco they let me return it and gave me a cash card. Since I started sewing I've gone through two brothers and two singers. No more of those brands! I will say my vintage 60's Singer works fine. My singer serger works fine.

I'm looking at Janomes now. Please, Janome, be a good brand. 

WARNING Bras

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i made my first bra, the pattern and kits I purchased came from bravo bella.

Here's how it looked once on.  

   

This is it: 

  
I had to make adjustments on the fit (that'd why you see darts and marker) but so far, so good! 

 The second was a 36K tester. The band fits well enough but the cups are too small.  

 We'll get it figured out yet! 

Now my Singer Quantum 9960 is acting up...she's jamming and stuttering at me. I've tried everything I can think of. Next step is calling Singer hellhole  customer service. Last experience was not so pleasant. 

Fabrics and wires and hooks, oh my!

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I finally finished my friend's Bikini. She a curvy gal and couldn't find a swimsuit that she liked. So she picked out her fabric (her choice surprised me!) and I picked up the lining and elasticity. 

After a bit of finagling I got it cut out and sewed up. It was a bear trying to mess with elastic so but I muddled though and came out, nonetheworse for wear. 
 

My next projects will be some bras for me and I need to get working on my projects. 

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Simplicity 1392

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Total wadder. I don't know if it's my garage sale fabric, my FBA, my grading, or what, but this is not a keeper. I'm not sure I'm even going to keep it for knocking around the house like some of my other projects (two skirts and a dress). I'm even wearing a dress under this!

The waist is too big, the hip line a bit too snug. The tucks are just...meh. The bust is way too big and blousy. This is going in the trash. Oh well. Can't win them all!

  

I was tracing out Simplicity 1392 so I could grade up and do my FBA. Found a pretty good error! Fortunately I figured it out. It took a few minutes of head-scratching.  

I was tracing out Simplicity 1392 so I could grade up and do my FBA. Found a pretty good error!

Fortunately I figured it out. It took a few minutes of head-scratching.  

  

I had traced the pieces and graded up like I usually do and noticed that the facing curve wasn't matching the back neck curve. 

On the pattern paper itself, they marked the two pattern pieces #18 as back facing. They have another two pieces (#16) also marked as back facing. 

They misprinted multiple pieces on this but fortunately I was able to figure out #18 is not the back facing but the front facing.

 

  

 

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