Maturing and "Valuable Time"

I have been a busy bee over the last couple of weeks.  Right after my last post, I went to LA to see my cousin.  While I was there I met up with other seamstresses for a fabric district romp with Mimi.  That was the most fun!  I even got my sister to join me (Finally after 20+ years she has decided to take up sewing!).  I fell in love with the garment/fabric district.  The NY trip prepared me for it!




A snippet of one of the many blocks in LA garment/fabric district



BY THE POUND!!!  We found the Michael Levine's outlet store; Can you say Sewing Heaven!!! We found a couple of designer pieces here.  You just have to be willing to dig.  And they'll cut it if you only want part of piece!

 Since then I've been sewing, sewing, sewing.  I've made a couple of dresses, a petticoat for my vintage dresses, started on some pants, etc.   I'll have to post the pictures later (I'm trying to convince the hubby I need a camera with a remote; he's almost convinced).

In the meantime, as most of you may remember, I've been going thru an organization phase.  Well I got my patterns put into Microsoft onenote and got a fabric stash binder completed.  Then I decided it was time to organize the magazines.  I have all of my magazines (Burda and Patrones) in magazine holders.  I have a stash of Burda Mags from about 1998 to current.  Anyway I'm discovering with maturity (SMILE), that I just don't have the patience to thumb thru the magazines to look for a pattern; so I figured why not put the line-drawings for my Burda's in Onenote, and then I can just look thru those from my laptop, iphone, or ipad.  So I've been in the process of scanning those in.  So far I have the scans from the current back to 2009 (and still going):

 

Scanned line drawing (jpeg) for Burda.  The URL for magazine archives is at BURDA



Line drawing in Microsoft OneNote

 So now I can scan thru my Burda mags to see if there is a pattern in Burda that meets my needs, no matter where I am at.  (eventually, I'll add text to the pages so that I can do searches).

NOTE: If any of you are interested in accessing the line-drawings please let me know and I will make them available to others.  Also, if some of you are interested, I found another link for looking at the line drawings and pictures (it seems more organized than the Burda site).  Burda Online Magazines; its in Russian; so I've included the link via Google translator.  It also has line drawings/pix for La Boutique, etc.

My First Patrones Pattern and My Next Sewing Adventure

Well I just completed my first Patrones pattern. It was a high waisted skirt from the Patrones Extra issue #272.

I had a black/white cotton print from my stash, that I used. It turned out nicely. I also decided to put some boning in the upper waist, to keep with the waist shaped, and standing tall. It was very strange making a pattern and not being able to read the instructions. It has got me thinking of

learning Spanish. (That's one thing I regret is that I required to learn another language in high school, oh well this is something for my future retirement - learn Spanish; At least all my kids took 4 years of a foreign language in high school).

The skirt actually has princess seams so it was very easy to fit. I decided to try the "sway back" adjustment just for the heck of it on the skirt, and it turned out very nicely.

Well, as to my next sewing project. It's a vintage pattern that I got from my mom. I'm going to make it up in a green Silk Dupioni (I'll have to underline it):

The pattern was a size too small, so I had to do some pattern grading. This was is my first attempt at it. I used some instructions I found at:

Sensibilty - Resize a Pattern

Burda - Grade a bodice pattern to a larger size

It actually wasn't too bad, and actually turned out good on the first go round:

Now on to getting the skirt part fitted. I typically have to add 4-6 inches to get the length right.