And the winner of the SA Curve ruler is......

I had a very scientific drawing by putting all the comments in a basket and asking my daughter to draw one out. Congratulations to Lisa Laree who made the following comment.

"Wow, I might actually start sewing from my 5 years accumulation of Burda Style. I've thought how useful such a thing would be; so glad someone had the resources to do it!"

Send me your address, Lisa Laree, and I'll get your SA Curve ruler in the mail to you so that you can have fun with all those Burda patterns!

 Thanks to Claire for designing this great ruler and making the giveaway possible!

Last Minute Halloween Costume

It's been a few years since I had a request for a Halloween costume. I got a very last minute request this year from my 21 year old for a Captain America costume, female version. She loves Marvel movies and especially Captain America. The Halloween Express tent that comes into town every year had a few poorly constructed, and very revealing costumes for $39.99 and up. We decided to challenge ourselves to come up with something more tasteful.

We found a royal blue dress at Forever 21 for $9.99, a shield in the toy department at WalMart for $9.99, and a mask for $2 at Target. I bought red sparkly lame type fabric at Hancock Fabrics from their costume selection for the belt and gauntlets. I used a heavy decor bond interfacing for both, lined them and fastened with Velcro. To add the stripes to the belt, I used a wide ribbon from my stash.

A little tip for sewing with the lame which ravels faster than you can sew it! I sprayed the heavy interfacing with my machine embroidery adhesive spray and then laid the red pieces on top. This lightly fused them together. I serged around the edges just to make sure there were no ravels when I stitched and turned the pieces.

 
My daughter really wanted a white star on the front bodice. I stitched out a star with my embroidery machine on the heavy decor bond interfacing, carefully trimmed around the edges, and hand sewed it to the front.  

With the black boots that she already had, it all came together and she had a great time at the party!

SA Curve Ruler Giveaway!

I've always wanted to host a giveaway and, thanks to Claire at SA Curve, it's happening this week! Claire designs these great rulers for adding seam allowances to patterns. They are perfect for tracing from multisized patterns and adding the seam allowance at the same time. Claire was kind enough to share a couple of her 5/8" rulers with me - one to keep and one to give away. Tracing from multisized, overlapping patterns is not my favorite part of sewing but this ruler should make the process so much easier! The ruler is also available in 3/8". Check out the video links on Claire's blog to learn more about how to use this seam allowance curved ruler.

The ruler is great for pattern drafting, tracing European patterns, making adjustments, adding seam allowances after altering patterns, pattern grading, etc. This is going to be one of those sewing notions that I wonder how I ever lived without! I've already traced a pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross that I had been putting off because I thought it would take forever. It didn't with this ruler!

Leave a comment below and tell me how you would use this ruler to speed up your sewing!  I will draw a name randomly at midnight CST on Sunday, October 28. This giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only.

Sorbetto Top #5

Guess what I made! I just can't help myself. Every time I run across a "blousy" type fabric, I think, "Oh, that would make a nice Sorbetto". I'll be able to wear this woven poly top through the fall and winter with a sweater over it. I found the fabric at Hancock Fabrics and got a great deal on the end of the bolt. Hancock's has a policy that if you buy the remainder of the bolt (less than a yard, I think) you get it at 1/2 price. I ended up with a generous 1 5/8 yards for $6.50, enough to make a Sorbetto for myself and my daughter if I cut carefully.

My first three Sorbettos were cotton and linen fabrics with darts added to the back and button fronts. For the polyester type fabrics, I really like the front tuck. The top is actually pretty easy to slip over the head even without a front opening or back slit.

Sorbetto #1 - Poly/cotton remnant from an underwear company
Sorbetto #2 - Linen with Venetian hemstitch
Sorbetto #3 - Double cloth reversible fabric from Wal-Mart
Sorbetto #4 - Poly woven fabric
Sorbetto #5 - Poly woven fabric

I never put this favorite pattern away.  It's pinned to the bulletin board behind my sewing machine waiting for Sorbetto #6!