Here is my latest project that I have sewn for Ava.   It is a sun dress that would have really come in handy last week in Seattle due to the great weather.  This week not much since it prerty much rained all weekend. This pattern comes from a japanese sewing book.  Yes- the entire book is in japanese, but they have really great illustrations and I have a little cheat sheet that the sewing terms are translated.  I love the japanese sewing books, the clothes are so simple and cute.   This is my second project from one of the books.

So I course I had a "did I sew that wrong moment?".   Japanese patterns do not have seam allowances.  I swear I added the seam allowances to everything, but as I made Ava try the bodice I noticed it did not fit and I had a moment of panic.     I tried to be creative and you can see I added an extra panel to back side to make it fit.   Oh well, Ava likes it and wants to wear it.  So I guess that is all I can ask for.   Now if it just would warm up again so she can wear it.   I have another japanese pattern cut out, so as soon as I finish I will post the pictures.  

Here is the dress- it made out a grey striped linen I found at Joannes.  I had a hard time finding a good location to take a picture without a car showing up.

  

You can see I added a panel for the buttons due to not adding a seam allowance here.   They are the shape of roses.

My first posting

Today is my first post in my sewing blog.   I decided to start this blog to journal my sewing projects since the number is large and I am losing track.   I have been sewing seriously for about four years, ever since Ava asked me to sew her doll clothes and I cursed the entire project because I thought it was so hard.    Luckily I stuck with it and started sewing her clothes.    I even have tried a couple of pieces for myself.   Sewing for myself is a lot harder.  Much easier to sew for a little stick figure.  This blog will feature my successes and my failures (there have been a lot).   I hope you enjoy.

Since it is my new blog, I will also show you my new baby.     About two years ago one of my co-workers sold me here really nice serger/coverstitch machine.  I was really excited because when she bought it it was top of the line and had all the bells and whistles.   I bought it for $200 which was really a bargain since it probably cost her several thousand or more.    About a three weeks ago I was serging along and bam!   My needle broke in half.   The whole piece that made the needle go up and down broke.   I had a pretty bad feeling because I found about a a year ago they stopped making the model and there were no new parts.   Sure enough I walked into a local repair shop and was told that there was nothing they could do to fix it.   I was heart broken.   Of course the sales lady was really quick to show me a great new machine for only $3500!!!!   I thanked her and left- I believe that machine was worth more than my old car.    I decided to take the machine to another repair shop that did only repairs and no sales.  I figured I wouldn't not get the pressure to buy something.  Unfortunately they too could not fix my machine.  It died a quick death.

So here is my new baby- I found it on line and I love it.    I can't wait to try new projects with it.  It is a serger and coverstich in one.   I have to admit it is probably better than the old one.  It took a degree to thread and I never converted it to a coverstich since it was so many steps and never looked right.

Both my kids are obsessed with the rainbow loom right now which means they have their stuff all over the house and quite a few bands have been sucked up in the vacuum.    A couple of months ago I sew a pattern on line for carrying case and bought it.     It sat around in a box for a while and I decided to finally tackle this weekend.    Unfortunately the pattern tackled me and it was really hard.   I finally gave up and made a hybrid of the pattern and another pattern I have.   The was definately a lot "Did I sew that wrong" making it.  But they turned about pretty cute and kids were happy.  Infact when I picked Ava up from school today I received requests from her friends.   Both kids were about to choose their fabric.  

Here is Ava's- it has  a pocket for both her loom and case of bands, plus a zipper pocket for extra. 

Instead of handles like the pattern called for, which for the life of me could not figure out I put a tie instead.  I got the idea for the mod kid pattern jewerly role.     Like I said the kids are not picky and it holds their stuff.