The Start of a New Year

Well, very Happy New Year to everyone!

This past year has been one of growth, learning, joy, and pain (but aren't they all). My prayer is that the new one will bring much joy to everyone.

How did I spend my New Year's Day? Well I of course went to the fabric store; Denver Fabrics here in Colorado, everything was 30% off and silk dupioni was 50% off (I'll post pictures later).

But most of my day was spent cleaning my sewing room for a new arrival. See my husband decided to surprise me with something that I had been "googling" over for the last month. I pick it up on tomorrow. In preparation, I swapped my sewing room with my youngest son (his room was bigger, and since he's only home on breaks from graduate school I figured why waste all that unused space). I didn't realize how much stuff I had (sewing and non-sewing related). I'm talking super-hero action figures, baseball/basketball cards, clothes that haven't seen the outside of the closet in years (specifically basketball jerseys my boys wore when they were 10!).

We were keeping a lot of "memories" in boxes in the closets. My new motto is "if it hasn't been used in 3 months then consider giving it to someone that will use it".

As you go through the items, you begin to realize just how much your life has changed, and will continue to change. Its a bitter-sweet and sobering moment; But with God's assistance the change is always for the good. Seems like it was just yesterday when we had to move the end tables to the basement because the boys were using them as diving boards!

I've been trying to pull together my Goals for this 2009, so here's a rough-draft:

1. Continue to acknowledge God for his presence in my life
   
2. Exercise at least 30 minutes each day (I've already joined the local 24 hour fitness, and started going every other day since beginning of December)
3. Run in my first 5k of half-marathon (just keeping it real) by June 2009
4. Tell all the key people in my life that I love them regularly.
5. Complete Daughter's Basketball scrapbook
6. Document everything I sew
   
7. Make a custom dress form
8. Improve my fitting techniques
9. Complete quilt for my son

Tomorrow, I'll post pics of my "Christmas Gift", fabric purchase, and "cleaned-up" sewing room.

Lots of Love to everyone....

NL 6826 - New TNT pattern.

Well, I've found me a new TNT Pattern. Its New Look Jumper 6826. I wanted something easy to make that I could wear with a Turtleneck and tights now that the cold weather is approaching. I've made it twice now (both out of a light weight wool). One is a houndstooth print.

This is from my fabric stash. I took about two yards. I had to make the following changes to the pattern:

1. Added 2 1/2 inches to the overall length.
2. I made a size 14 but altered it to a larger width at the full hip (specifically in the back); which meant I had to redistribute the pleats.
3. Added 1/2 inch to length of bodice (yoke) piece.

I made the dress in a solid grey wool the first time I made it. I did it specifically by the pattern, although it was quick; I really didn't like the finishing on the inside. I wanted a lot cleaner finish on the inside, so I sewed the zipper and straps in place before adding the yoke lining. I also used a centered invisible zipper; the pattern called for an overlapped zipper.

Below, a picture of the houndstooth dress, the zippers edges are not exposed as they are in the first version of the dress (the grey). The ends of the dress-straps are sewing with in the facing on the houndstooth version, in contrast to the grey version,where the straps were hand sewn to the bodice. I like the houndstooth version of the dress inside so much better

If you're a beginning sewing, definitely give this pattern a try.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Lisa at The Hemline, my first tag! Here are seven facts about me.

1. I got married at the age of 19 to a guy I had known for only 3 months before becomming engaged. 27 years and 3 kids later we are still together!
2. I'm a professional storyteller (in addition to my sewing). I tell historical stories and personal stories. I call them, "Stories of Wisdom, Stories of Truth. I want my stories to make people think and question.
3. My youngest and only daughter will be heading off to college next year! (The older two are boys ages 25 and 22). This is the moment I've been waiting for, and now that its right around the corner, I tell myself I need to find a new life, and decide what I really want to be when I grow up - SMILE!
4. Even at the age of 40+, I am still my dad's little girl. That's something you never grow out of. When I go to visit he and I just sit and talk about anything and everything. My parents say I am the female version of my father.
5. In addition to sewing, I'm an avid scrapbooker. We won't even talk about that hobby! Let's just say I wish I had discovered it when my boys were little. I'm playing catch up on my photos.
6. When I get down or am going thru a tough moment, I go sit in the park. I admire all the beauty exists in this world. Besides, when you're going "thru" in life, its nothing like watching two squirrels fight over a nut, to put things in perspective.
7. I grew up very introverted and quiet. Caught a lot of teasing because of my height (6 ft). I was 30 before I was comfortable with my height. I'd always pray that I'd go somewhere and not be the tallest woman in the room. I tell folks God has a sense of humor, he answered my prayers, and made that room my house! My husband and I are the shortest in the house at 6 ft. My children are all 6' 5", 6' 1", and 6".

Well hopefully I haven't bored you with my 7 tidbits.

• Paco at Paco Peralta
• Krystal at Krustallos
• Adrienne at Real Life: Live and Unscripted
• artist1lisa at Sew On and Sew On
• Allison at AllisonC Sewing Gallery
• Leslie at Loohoo Originals
• Cidel at Miss Celie's Pants
  

I've tagged the folks above, as we said when we were children "Tag you're it!"

Tag Rules:

1. Link to your Tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a post on their blog.

My Yoga Mat Tote

I found a pattern for a yoga mat tote from Meream at http://boredandcrafty.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/yoga-mat-bag-tutorial/

I decided to use the log cabin block quilt pattern to make my cover. It was very simple and quick to make. See my review on http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=32604.

A Vintage kind of day, and other surprises

Remember the vintage patterns that my Mom gave me back in May. Well I finally did one of them. It is a Butterick 8213. I'm not sure when it was in-print, but the original cost of the pattern was only 50 cents. It was very simple. Sewing instructions back then were written very SPARSELY to say the least. But I love the fit of the dress.

I also got a chance to use some of my fabric stash for it, so that was really great. Sorry for the picture, maybe tomorrow when the sun is out, I'll have my husband take one outside. I find it very difficult to do self portraits.

This weekend I also got the first of the three more boxes of vintage patterns from my Mom, and a box of zippers!

I've signed up for the stash contest on sewing.patternreview.com, so on to the next project.

Organizing my Patterns

Well, I've been away for a while, but I can say I've been busy.

• My daughter decided on a college (she's decided to do pharmacy)
• traveled home to see my parents (actually went fabric/pattern shopping crazy with my Mom)
• found a store called "dirt cheap" on my trip home, yes that's right - for another post!
• started teaching part-time at a local college
• bought an adjustable height table for my sewing room to do cutting
• got a stash of vintage patterns from my Mom
  
• used some of my sewing stash (& bought replacement fabric - LOL)
• organized my patterns
  

First things first though, the pattern organization. I decided to make an album of all of my patterns with 5x8 index cards, so that I can use when I'm shopping. Here's a picture of my book:
For my newer patterns I have a word template that I use. Then I go to the pattern company's website and cut and past the information that I need, such as a picture, pattern description, yardages, front/back line drawing:
I've left areas to add notes such as fabrics used, alterations made, etc.

For my older patterns, I copy the pattern envelope (front and back) by reducing it to a 5x8 card without borders. (My 4 in 1 printer has a copy function that allows me to reduce).
When I go shopping I just take the card out of my notebook and place in my purse. When I pick out fabric for a particular pattern, I clip a piece of the fabric and pin to the card. It makes it easier to pick out notions etc. since I have the card with the fabric sample attached.

Well needless to say I have discovered that I have a LOT of patterns to say the least. We won't say how many though - SMILE! And they've just increased by another 100 or so because of my Mom's gift of some vintage patterns. I had to send those by UPS, since the planes won't let you carry baggage for free anymore. I'll take pix when they arrive.

Portland, BasketBall, & Sewing

As I've stated my daughter is a basketball player, and is planning to play ball in college. So we are all spending 4 days in Oregon to visit one of the universities in the area.

We flew into Portland OR on Wednesday morning. We got in at around 10:30 AM. And after getting our rental car headed to find something to eat at a restaurant called "TODAI" located in Pioneer Square in downtown Portland.

Then we headed to the hotel to spend our first night and try to get some overdue sleep (since we left home at 3:30 am that morning.) Well needless to say while my husband and daughter slept, I went off to Fabric Depot in Portland!

Can you believe when I got there, a 30% off of everything sale was going on! I wanted so badly to buy fabrics (but this whole airline thing is really playing havoc with my purchasing ability because I don't like to ship stuff back home, I want to carry it with me. I flew USAir and had to pay $15 for the first bag checked - can you believe it!). Besides, I'm trying to cut down on my stash - Hey at least I can dream. I did however purchase 3 books.

They had an outdoor sale, so off I went. I found quite a few notions, etc. ( 1/8" elastic for my heirloom sewing; bra extenders; self-cover belt kits - been looking for those to make matching belts for my vintage/retro patterns).

On Thursday we headed to the school. We'll be touring some of the campus and meeting with the team on Thurs. and Fri. In the meantime I spotted a little quilting shop I want to check out - picture me with a big SMILE. Maybe I'll get a chance to visit the Mill End store and Josephine's Dry Goods when we head back home on Saturday.