Shirring!

Today I tackled shirring for the first time!  I'd seen several blogs with tutorials on making dresses and skirts using shirring, and I was excited to give it a try.  It seemed an easy and versatile skill to learn, so I went to Joann this morning and got a purple stretch knit and some elastic thread.  The recommendations by one site were to take the measurement of the fullest part of your body (for me, the hips) and multiply it by 1.25.  The fabric I found at Joann was exactly the width I needed, so I got one yard and figured that would be long enough, and I could hem it if need be. 

Shirring is so stinking easy.  If you haven't tried it, you should!  I loaded my regular thread up top, and hand-wound the elastic thread on the bobbin (don't stretch it as you wind it).  Then sew in lines along the top your fabric with your stitch length at its longest.  As you do more and more lines of shirring, you do need to stretch the fabric out as you go, but it's not at all hard.  Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end of each row too to secure your stitching.  I also had to make sure to use the correct needle for the fabric I was using.

I used special jersey/ballpoint needles for this fabric, and you can see one of the 10's is missing from the case.  The woman at Joann suggested starting with the 10 and moving to the 12 if necessary, but the 10 was perfect.

Shirring in action!

I lined up the edge of my presser foot with the previous row to keep the rows evenly spaced.

               

I tried on the dress and it could have been a little snugger, but it wasn't falling down.  In the future, I would use my bust measurement for a dress, and use the hip measurement for a skirt.  The length ended up being just about perfect, so I was just going to do a 1-inch hem.  I've never used knit fabric before, and I'm pretty sure I did the hem completely wrong!  Oh well, lesson learned!

Super comfy!  Not the most flattering, but someday I'll learn to make stuff that is comfy AND flattering!

Here's a link to the tutorial I used:

Convertible Dress

I'm finally feeling like a sewer!

I finished a top!  But before I get to that, I'd like to catch you up on the house:  It appears that we are approved, and are just ironing out details at this point.  We're signing/turning in whatever documents the bank wants, getting our homeowner's insurance lined up, and narrowing down a closing date (looking like the 23rd).  We just need the final approval from the bank!  We drove past the house the other day and I was thrilled to see a "SOLD" sign in the yard!!

Now onto sewing...

My bestie had her second child last week (May 3rd to be exact) and the little girl is just precious!  I snapped this pic of my husband holding her, and doesn't he just look good with a baby in his arms?

So I made some burp clothes.  And then I made them again, because I made the first ones too small (like, washcloth small).  I got half a yard of basic quilting cotton and half a yard of snuggle fleece and it made four burp cloths.  Super easy and fast project. Here's the tutorial I used.

I also made a top this week using Simplicity 2147.  I made the tunic length, though I would love to make the dress one day too.  This is a "Learn to Sew" pattern, though I found that the directions weren't any more explicit than a regular pattern.  My saving grace was this video from Professor Pincushion, which took me step by step through making this top. I'd also like to point out this pattern only goes up to size 18, and normally I would make a 20 or 22 depending on the garment. However, I felt that since this was fitted only in the upper bust/shoulder area and loose everywhere else I could make the 18, and it worked.

So I followed along with the video, and this top was so simple!  I used bias tape along the neck for the first time (easy!) and made pleats for the first time (SUPER easy!).  I made it with 2 yards of a crinkly green cotton lawn from Fabric.com, and while it is beautiful and breezy, it was a difficult choice for only my second garment ever.  Aside from that, I will be making this top/dress again.  I'd like to try it with a cotton lawn or linen blend, or maybe a lightweight broadcloth.  Next time, I'll also skip making the pleats in the back as it makes the top very poofy.  I've heard other people mention that they would remove the pleats, but no one said how, so I'm think center back seam, but any advice would be welcome.  Now for some shots of yours truly:

Pardon my hair.  On my days off, I refuse to touch a blow dryer. Now for reference, this is me this morning just before my run.  You can see that I am no skinny-minnie, but neither am I The World's Largest Woman.

And this is me with my new shirt on.

Welcome to Poof City, population me.  I really think eliminating the back pleats will help.  Either way, I still love it because it's so comfortable. 

I've been away, but not idle...

I apologize for my absence!  My husband and I have been sucked into the whirlwind that is purchasing a house.  We found one we liked, made an offer on it, and that offer was accepted, which set into motion a chain of events we weren't quite prepared for.  For example, we didn't realize that once the sellers accept your offer, you have just five days to do EVERYTHING.  We had to get a lawyer, drop off earnest money, get a home inspection, start our loan paperwork, and have all the down payment money ready right away! It's a "hurry up and wait" situation.  We ran around like crazy people getting everything together, and now we have to wait to get our loan approved (apparently FHA is backed up with loan approvals).  We got word today that the appraisal went well, but otherwise, this week has been blessedly free of anything house-related.  While we are excited to move in and make it our own, we cannot wait to be done with all the legal and monetary aspects of such a purchase.  Seriously, if you ever want to test the limits of your sanity or the strength of your marriage, try buying a house.

On to other things...

Last week, my mums and I got together to work on my first quilt.  We were both sick with colds, so we didn't get as much done as we would have liked, but we are making awesome progress.  Here is the pattern we're working with.  I got some great fabrics from the Summer House collection by Heather Mulder Peterson, and here are some of the blocks so far:

This week my mums and her bestie are in Paducah for AQS Quilt Week, so no work on the quilt this week.  In the meantime, I sewed my very first top!  I used Butterick 5364, which is super simple: just seam the shoulders and sides, then hem the sleeves and bottom.   It also calls for making a neck facing using lightweight fusible interfacing, which I did, but rather sloppily.  I've read of other people making this top without the facing and just making a narrow hem along the neckline.  I may try that next time.  For this top I used a blue cotton lawn by Lisette from Joann.

Tonight after my run, I cranked out a pair of pajama shorts.  I used a McCall's pattern, which I got on sale at Joann for 99 cents, and an adorable whale-print snuggle fleece (my husband thought they were sperm. Go figure).  This was an easy enough pattern, but next time I'm going to shorten the waist, as right now I have the waistband rolled up to prevent a too-baggy crotch.  Very cute and comfy though!

Sorry...not sure why this picture ended up sideways...

A close-up of the adorable fabric!

Hope

Have you ever had a rough time in life, and one day you hear a song that just speaks to you?  Today was that day for me.  I have been having said rough time for five months now, ever since I had a miscarriage at the end of October, and I thought I was doing better, but lately I've been struggling, feeling pessimistic, lost, hopeless...today I felt a glimmer of hope.  I was driving back to work from yet another meeting, the sun was out, it was warm and my window was down.  I was listening to my favorite artist, Joshua Radin, and the song The Rock and the Tide came on my iPhone.  I've heard this song many, many times, but today it spoke to my heart.

See a mountain, see an ocean,

see the years that bring rock and tide close together.

Settle down, I said to myself

Things that come with time

Will always be better

Sometimes lyrics and music come together with a moment in your life and clear your vision.  It's been so hard for me to struggle month after month, to see other women succeed so easily, and to feel so lonely in my loss. I'm by no means okay, but this was a timely reminder that one day, when we have the family we so desire, we'll be all the more grateful and see that all the heartache was worth it. Even that small spark of hope can carry us through.

A Post About Shapes!

Today I made something round and something square. 

My husband has had these end tables that were passed down to him from his grandparents forever.  They're nice and solid, but they just aren't my style, and I've been begging him for a very long time to get rid of them.  Well, we finally found some friends who wanted to buy them off us, so as an additional "thank you", I offered to make them the baked good of their choice, and they chose chocolate chip cookies (or as I prefer to say, chip chocolate cookies). Oddly enough, I don't have a recipe for chip chocolate cookies in my repertoire, but lo and behold, Trader Joe's printed one on the bag of chocolate chips I bought!  When I've made chip chocolate cookies in the past with other recipes, I've had problems with spreading and crunchiness and whatnot.  These. were. perfection.  I'm almost sad to give them away. And then I look at those tables.  Almost.

So in case you didn't figure it out yet, the cookies were my something round.  For my square project, I tackled...napkins!

I've been slowly creating a sewing library, and one of the books I picked up is Stitch by Stitch: Learning to Sew, One Project at a Time, by Deborah Moebes.  The first part of the book goes over the basics, like tools and your machine and fabric choices. The second part is the projects, each one building on the one before it, so by the end, you're sewing clothing.  The first project is Fancy Napkins, so I decided to tackle those.

I picked up 1 1/4 yards of quilting cotton at Joann and washed, dried, and ironed it.  The author then has me "true up" my fabric.  Now, I'm by no means an experienced sewer, but I'm not completely new either, and I have never heard of truing up fabric.  I wanted to do the project correctly, and learn the proper skills, so I followed the directions for truing up my fabric.  Hands down, this was the most tedious and awful thing I've ever had to do.  She offers two options: one for teasing out a thread along the selvedge to establish the grainline, the other, snip and rip. She recommends the first option, as it is gentler, and I went with it because I was scared to rip my fabric.  45 minutes later, I had about three inches of thread teased out, and I decided that was enough and lined it up with my new Omnigrid ruler and cut it with my new rotary cutter. It didn't look any straighter than before I trued it up, but I trusted her and proceeded on to step two: cutting out four 19" squares.  NO ONE TOLD ME HOW HARD IT IS TO CUT EVEN SQUARES.  The directions for this didn't help either.  Her suggestions were "measure out four sides, mark with chalk and cut", or "measure out two sides, fold into a triangle, and cut off the excess".  No directions on making sure your sides all match.  And this is where the truing up didn't seem to help, because after meticulously measuring 19" for each side, none of my squares came out even or to 19".  Fortunately, they're just napkins, but still, this is a basic skill that I'd like to master before tackling anything else.  The next step was to overstitch all the edges to keep them from unraveling. Easy enough.

Then, on to mitering the corners. Also fairly easy.  After pressing the corners and edges, I topstitched the edges and gave them another ironing. Et voila!

The best-looking miter of the bunch.

Embarrassingly, I had to Google how to set a table.

I think once I master the cutting part, this project will go much faster (sounds like another lesson with Mums!). I also think the miters will be neater with more even cuts.  I have another fabric waiting in the wings to make another set. Practice makes perfect!

Also, I realize that I haven't posted any pictures of my beautiful machine!  Here she is:

She is, as yet, nameless, so I am open to suggestions!

Birthday Shenanigans

As you may or may not be aware, Thursday was my birthday.  I turned a very important age...30!  I thought I would finally feel like an adult, but alas, I don't.  I suppose that's a good thing, that whole "you're only as old as you feel" thing. 

On Wednesday, I finished my first sewing project (with much assistance from my mums). At Joann, they sell this awesome fabric that is shirred along one selvedge, and is wide enough to be a long, mid-length, or child's dress.  All you have to do is seam up the back.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty short, so I did have to hem my dress, but I used the extra eight inches I cut off to make straps.  Now it just needs to warm up so I can wear it!

On Thursday I had to attend a meeting for work, but they got me a cake, and I brought vanilla cupcakes.  I used Taste of Home's white cake recipe, and then made my own buttercream using 1/2 c unsalted butter, 1/2 c salted butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, the seeds from one vanilla bean, and enough heavy cream to make it the right consistency.  Minus the vanilla bean, this is my favorite way to make buttercream, and I can adjust it to any flavor (I added cherry preserves once...yum!).  I'm a huge fan of vanilla-vanilla cupcakes, and when it's your birthday, you make whatever damn cupcakes you please! When I got home, my husband took me out to dinner to one of favorite restaurants, and he got us tickets to see Jim Gaffigan in April.

Friday I made a pincushion which revealed my still unrefined sewing skills, but I did head back to Joann to take advantage of 40% off rotary supplies, plus I snagged some clearance home dec fabric (I also had a 25% off coupon so I got some sweet deals).  My husband and I headed to my best friend's house for dinner, but it turns out they had other plans: a surprise party!  No one has ever thrown me a surprise party before, and I'll admit, I cried like a small child. So many people turned out to celebrate with me, and I felt so insanely loved. My bestie made my favorite cake ever, coconut cake!  Check out this beauty!

On Saturday, we stopped at Lowe's to get some supplies for making a sewing table for me.  My husband has an old desk that his dad put together and slathered in a dark lacquer many years ago.  We are stripping off the lacquer, priming it, and then painting it the color of my choice (I got a couple samples to try out).  I headed to a derby bout in the evening to watch two of my friends skate to a solid win!

Today, my husband and I decided today to get the ball rolling on house hunting.  We meet with a realtor tomorrow night to discuss what we're looking for and how to get started.  Perhaps home ownership will finally make me feel like an adult?

Welcome!

Welcome to my (new) blog!  Yes, I had another one, but it fizzled out, and so here's my new one, the blog that dreams are made of!

I want to take this opportunity to lay out what you can expect from me and my posts.  Hopefully, you're already interested in some of this stuff, and if not, maybe you'll be inspired to try something new!

Knitting! Oh yes, I am a knitter, so I will talk quite a bit about projects I'm working on, yarn I've acquired, techniques I'm learning, etc.

Cooking and baking! Some people might say I'm a bit of a foodie, and they would be right.  I LOVE to cook!  I'm not so much into gourmet food as I am into making things that are tasty, healthy, and time-friendly.  And while I love to cook, I SUPER love to bake!  Pies, cupcakes, cookies, bread, muffins, tarts, cakes...you name it, I bake it (and then eat it).

Running! Running is something I got into last year, then when I got promoted at work, it fell by the wayside.  I lost 23 lbs doing it (most of which has crept back on in the past eight months) and it kept me sane, so I'm making the effort to get back into it.

Cycling! My husband and I love to cycle.  Last year, my family all pitched in and got me a mountain bike (her name is Stella), and when I got promoted, I took my extra earnings and bought a road bike (as yet nameless).  When the weather gets slightly warmer, we'll be out as much as we can.  Our annual camping trip usually involves some kind of cycling.

Cats! I've got three of them, and I would have more if my husband weren't so iron-fisted.  Yes, without someone to reign me in, I would be a crazy cat lady.

Doctor Who! (and other British TV) You don't like Doctor Who?  Get off my blog.

Books! You had to know this was coming.  I manage a bookstore, for crying out loud!  I read whatever I can get my hands on, so be prepared for anything!

Sewing! This is a recently acquired hobby (or rather, recently revisited).  I know a bit of sewing from my younger days, but I'm getting back into it.  I just got a beautiful new Bernina, and my mums is going to teach me all about quilting.  I'm sure I'll be sharing lots of learning moments!

"Gee whiz, Megan!  You sure are into a lot of stuff!  Is there anything you won't be talking about?"

Firstly, I am a complex and multi-faceted woman.  Deal with it.  And yes, there are things you won't see here, such as:

Hate. Nope, not here.  No racism, bigotry, homophobic remarks, or any other nasty or vile subject matter. Also, no violence.

Religion. How people choose to worship (or not) is their business, so we won't discuss it here.

Politics. With the exception of two subjects (okay, three, if anyone from the GOP starts yammering about rape again), I won't be talking politics.  The two exceptions are
1) Breed-specific legislation.  I love pit bulls, and I hate the discrimination against them.  Education, not legislation.  This also applies to other breeds.
2) Food.  I get all hot under the collar when it comes to the way we deal with food in America.  The country most obsessed with dieting and fitness is also the fattest.  That's crazypants. Also, all the GMOs and processing is ridiculous.  I visit farmer's markets or grow what I can, and make as much of my own food as possible.  But this a whole post (or series of posts) of its own!

Meat. I'm a vegetarian, so sorry, you'll not see any meat on this blog!

Dieting. I don't "diet", and I don't encourage anyone else to either.  Eat real, whole food 80% of the time, and the rest of the time you're good.  So you won't see any fad diets or starving myself or anything of the sort.  I enjoy eating, and I don't like to be made to feel guilty for it.  Again, that's a whole other discussion.

Hopefully at this point, you're still interested in following me, my life and my hobbies.  There will be plenty of craftiness and good food and a generous helping of humor, so come back soon!